Payback
by Liam Wescott
Summary: What if Jake's prayer to Eywa is answered, in a way he can't imagine?  My take on the backstory of the movie and where the direction the story should go after the first film
1. Chapter 1

Note: this story begins about six weeks or so after the end of the first movie, when we see Jake and the Na'vi overseeing the departure of the humans at Hell's Gate. The story is basically this: suppose Jake's prayer to Eywa is answered, in a way neither he nor Neytiri can envision? It's my take on the backstory of the Avatar universe and my attempt to answer the question "What happens next?" at the end of the first film. Rated T (there's a little swearing and a little bit of violence) and has the introduction of a major new character, as well as technology not seen in the first film. I don't own Avatar (that's James Cameron and 20th Century Fox who own the copyright) but I do own this story. This story belongs to me, I hold the copyright to this story, and it is copyright ©2010 Liam Wescott. All Rights Reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced without written consent from me, Liam Wescott.

Chapter 1: In Which We Meet The Man Who Will Save the World

The air is hot, muggy, and if any humans were around, they would have called it oppressive. But there are no humans here, not on this particular patch of Pandoran jungle floor. It is silent, save for the incessant buzzing and humming of various small flying creatures, flitting and darting around amongst the understory. Somewhere off in the distance, there is a troop of Prolemurs prancing around through the trees.

Suddenly, from very far above, there is loud CRACK! sound, like a single clap of thunder, then nothing. The flying creatures continue about their business, ignorant of strange sounds in their world if those sounds didn't represent a threat to them.

A minute or so after the loud sound echoed from above, there came crashing sounds from above, up in the jungle canopy, as though something (or someone) is crashing or falling through the canopy toward the forest floor. Indeed, someone is falling, bouncing somewhat ungracefully down amongst the big leaves and vines of the jungle, slowing his descent until he finally hits a large leaf and then bounces off a large pile of dung left behind by some large Pandoran animal, which further breaks his descent.

He is a Sky Person, a human, a man perhaps in his mid forties, maybe a bit older than that, with a touch of graying hair along his temples, and a professorial demeanor about him. He stands up from the forest floor, and dusts himself off. He is wearing what at first look might have been mistaken as the costume of a superhero but what is actually a wingsuit used by parachutists and BASE jumpers. It's made of tightly-stretched fabric, clearly not real fabric and bright orange in color. It has been scratched and ripped during his descent through the canopy, but the man wearing it is just fine. He is also wearing standard swimming goggles over his eyes, but most noticeably, he is not wearing an exopack.

The man takes a few moments to get out of his wingsuit, dust it off, and fold it up into the little backpack he's wearing. After a moment's reflection, he turns back to the pile of dung, grabs some of it, and rubs it all over his body and his clothes until he's thoroughly covered in dung.

He removes a small, gray object from his pack, presses a couple buttons on its side, looks at its screen, then strides off purposely but very quietly in one particular direction.

The forest floor returns to its solitude.

- SCENE BREAK -

Hell's Gate was quiet this afternoon, Max thought for a moment, as he looked out over the vast landing pads that had once been a hustle of activity. Now they were by and large silent and abandoned, except for a few Na'vi warriors, wandering around here and there, gawking at the size of the human base and its extent, even weeks after almost all of the Sky People were now gone. There were a few of the Samsons and other aircraft that had survived the war, but these were not in use right now.

Hell's Gate was a lot quieter now, and he liked that just fine. Now all he had to do was figure out what to do with the rest of his life. He couldn't go back to Earth, not after what the RDA had done here and after they'd been kicked off this world for good, he hoped. If Max ever did manage to get back to Earth, he was sure he'd either be killed on the spot or arrested as a traitor. So, now he had the great privilege of living on Pandora, doing research in a human compound where there were few humans left, having to wear an exopack every time he wanted to venture outside this building, on a world that humans were not supposed to be on in the first place. That exopack reminded him every day that he should never have been here at all. If there was a way to get rid of that damn thing, he thought for a moment, then he'd do it in a heartbeat.

He was about to turn around and leave the landing pad to its solitude when the intercom on the wall buzzed. Someone wanted to talk to him? He pressed the comm button next to it.

"Max," it was Judy, one of the technicians who had stayed behind after the rest of the humans had left weeks earlier. She sounded concerned.

"Yes," he said, "what's up?"

"There's a man here to see you. He's says his name is Jerry Handelman and he says you know him. He says he has an urgent message to give to Jake and Neytiri, but he needs to talk to you first."

Jerry Handelman, the physicist? What the hell was he doing here? How the hell did he get here? Max thought randomly for a moment or two.

"Jerry Handelman? Where did he come from?" Max replied, incredulous. "I thought he was supposed to be teaching, back on Earth? How did he get here?"

"You do know him, then?" Judy asked, "he just showed up at the front gate a few minutes ago, asking to see one of the humans here. The Na'vi at the front gate let him in and escorted him to me, which is when he asked to see you. He says it is urgent."

"I will be right down." Max said, utterly mystified at this point.

How had Jerry Handelman gotten all the way out here? Was there a shuttle they didn't know about? What was going on here?

- SCENE BREAK -

Jerry Handelman turned out to be a bit disheveled, but still looked like the same overgrown kid Max remembered from the last time he'd seen Handelman. It was at a scientific conference in Munich, something to do with quantum physics or computers, or something like that. Handelman had his fingers in both the physics and computer worlds, so it was no surprise if it had been both.

But that had been almost twelve years ago or so, right before Max had come out here, when Handelman must have been in his early or mid thirties, Max couldn't remember exactly how old Jerry had been at the time. It was about ten years or so after he'd gotten his Nobel Prize in physics, that fact Max could remember, when Jerry's name and face were all over the news for his discoveries about quantum entanglement and string theory.

He'd gotten older, Max saw, but he still had the gleam in his eye of the kid who'd never outgrown his childhood sense of wonder at the world.

Today, however, that gleam was dulled. Jerry clearly had not had much sleep in the past few days and he looked more than a bit haggard.

Max greeted him warmly just the same. "Jerry, it's been a while! Twenty years, at least? What are you doing here?"

Handelman too his hand and shook it almost by rote, as though he was functioning on autopilot.

"Max. There isn't time for niceties. I have to talk to Jake and Neytiri soonest. I have a message I have to deliver to Eywa but I need to talk to the both of them first. Can you get in touch with them?"

"Sure." Max said, "Jake has a radio comm set with him at the new Hometree he and Neytiri found for the Omaticaya clan. The clan's been moving to that tree for the past week. It's between here and the Tree of Souls, about a third of the way from here to the Tree of Souls. Norm is out there helping the clan move today."

"Good," said Handelman, clearly agitated. "Call them up and have them come here soonest!"

"I will, Jerry. I will. But I have to ask again, what are you doing here and how the hell did you get here?" Max said, suddenly noticing that Jerry was not wearing an exopack of any kind nor was he wearing any sort of breathing apparatus at all.

"Where's your exopack?" he asked, as the implications began to dawn on him, the surreal weirdness of the moment finally catching up to him.

"I don't need one. I will explain later. Right now, you need to get me Jake and Neytiri so I can talk to them. I will explain how I got here too, once you and I talk to Jake and Neytiri. As for what I'm doing here, that's simple enough. I'm here to save the world."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: A New Home For Jake, Neytiri And the Omaticaya Clan

Their new Hometree was very nice, Neytiri thought as she helped one of her aunts settle in one of the nooks of the Tree, right near the base of one of its columns. But, it would never replace Hometree in her mind or her heart, she knew, but it was their new home now. She turned around as her mother, Mo'at called over to her.

"Neytiri, do we have enough stones for the new firepit?" her mother asked. Neytiri was about to answer her when Jake came over from the main area of their new home, where most Omaticaya were still camping until they could settle in.

Her heart melted a little bit upon seeing his smile, that smile that had captured her heart. Her mate looked and felt happy today and why not? They had found a new home and life was looking very good. All they had to do was establish themselves here in their new home and their future was assured.

"We can always get more stones later," Jake said, still smiling, "after we rest for a little while."

She knew what he was getting at and started smiling in response. There was a nice little grove a little ways in the woods, just off of the path to their new home, a grove she and Jake had already spent a few stolen moments here and there, "resting" when things got a bit too hectic.

But, there were practical considerations too, and they couldn't spend too much time dallying.

She started to answer her mother when another interruption came in the form of Normspellman, walking up the path into their new home, looking agitated and upset.

"Jake, Neytiri, it's Max on the radio from Hell's Gate. He needs to talk to both of you."

Jake turned toward Normspellman. "Did he say what it was about?"

"Nope. He said it was something he couldn't talk about over the radio. He said it is extremely urgent and that he needs you, Neytiri, and me to come to Hell's Gate as soon as possible."

"As soon as possible? What the hell does that mean?" her mate answered, more than a little upset at this odd request.

Normspellman shrugged his shoulders, in a gesture Neytiri had come to understand meant "I Don't Know" to the Sky People. "I'm just repeating what he told me to tell you. You can talk to him yourself, but I suggest we get cracking. He sounded very upset about something and all he would tell me was that it would be explained at Hell's Gate when we got there."

Neytiri looked at Jake, then at Normspellman. "Then we should go. It won't take very long and Mother can take care of things here while we're gone." This would take time, but if it wasn't a long meeting, there wouldn't be much time wasted, she hoped.

Her mate seemed nonplussed, but could not put forth any other objections, even though he seemed very annoyed at the prospect. The three of them then headed off to Hell's Gate on direhorses, not exactly Jake's favorite form of transportation, but until Neytiri got a new Ikran, it would have to do.

- SCENE BREAK -

Hell's Gate looked much the same as it did the last (and so far only) time Neytiri had been here, weeks before. It was mostly empty now, save for the Na'vi guarding the entrance and the few Sky People still there at the base.

Maxpatel was waiting for them at the front gate.

Jake stepped off his horse first. "Max. What's so goddamn important that we have to come out here and why couldn't you tell us over the radio?" he asked, still annoyed.

Maxpatel shrugged his shoulders and held up his hands. "Nice to see you again, Jake." He nodded to Neytiri, then turned to Normspellman.

"Jerry Handelman is here and he wants to talk to all of us about something very important." was all Maxpatel said.

Normspellman looked stunned, "Dr. Jerry Handelman? The Jerry Handelman? He's here? What the hell is he doing here? How the hell did he get here?" he asked, incredulous.

"Who's this Jerry Handelman? And what's the big deal about him" Jake asked, sounding even more annoyed.

Maxpatel looked at him, then said, "He's only the brightest physicist I've ever met. He has been involved with the avatar program from its earliest days. He's got two PhD.'s, one in physics and the other in computer science, and he's the smartest, most brilliant guy I've ever met. He teaches at Washington University outside of Washington, D.C. He's also the most straight-up guy you'll ever meet and when he says he needs to talk, you listen to him. That's all."

"What is a 'physicist'?" Neytiri asked, wondering if this Jerryhandelman of the Sky People was some important clan Olo'eyktan or something. That might explain all the fuss.

"A physicist is a scientist." was the only answer Maxpatel gave. "Look, he's waiting for us over in the garage area of the base. He's very anxious to meet you, so I suggest we get moving."

"This ought to be interesting, Jake." Normspellman said as they rode in to the main area of Hell's Gate. "If my memory serves correctly, Jerry Handelman was your brother's thesis committee chair or his adviser or something when he was getting his doctorate."

"Really?" Jake responded. "He knew Tommy?"

"Yup. I think he was your brother's thesis adviser, now that I remember it. Yeah, he knew Tom alright. I'm just gobsmacked that he's actually here. I'd sure like to know how he got here and why he's here now."

Neytiri was intrigued, to say the least. Jake had never talked much about his life before coming to Pandora. He'd barely mentioned any kind of family back on the home world of the Sky People. He'd mentioned a brother once, in passing, but she'd not pressed the issue. Perhaps this Jerryhandelman could shed a little light on her mate's background.

They got to to the main building of Hell's Gate and parked their horses. It was time to meet this mysterious Jerryhandelman and find out why he'd summoned them to this meeting.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: A Somewhat Lengthy, but Very Informative Meeting at Hell's Gate

Jerryhandelman turned out to be a tall, thin man, even for the Sky People. He was taller than Normspellman even, and Normspellman was among the tallest Sky People that Neytiri had ever seen. Jerryhandelman was a half a head taller than Normspellman, the top of his head would have come up almost to the base of her neck, but next to her mate, he would still have looked small. He had the right proportions for a Na'vi man, even if he was a man of the Sky People, she thought, as they entered the main garage area of Hell's Gate. His hair was light-colored, like that of some of the Sky People she had seen, but there were touches of white hair around his temples.

This area of the building was now open to the Pandoran atmosphere when it had been breached during the revolt that took place here in the battle against the Sky People, when some of their own here had rebelled against the Sky People who had tried to destroy the Tree of Souls. Everyone was wearing the exopacks she'd seen other humans wearing before. Exopacks were a great thing, she thought. If she'd not found one nearby when she'd found Jake on the floor of the Sky People building near the Tree of Souls …

Jerryhandelman did not have an exopack on, and this fact alone made her regard him with a deep sense of curiosity. He wasn't like other Sky People, she concluded. He's different in some way.

Jerryhandelman turned around, very clearly agitated. He looked like he had not had much rest in a long time and his eyes, a deep penetrating blue, fixed on her and Jake.

"Jake. And you must be Neytiri." Jerryhandelman said, his tone sounding dull, suggesting his mind was somewhere else.

Jake spoke first. "Yeah, I'm Jake Sully, and this is my mate Neytiri."

Normspellman was staring at Jerryhandelman very fixedly, as though he were trying to divine something in Jerryhandelman's soul perhaps.

"Dr. Handelman, do you remember me? I'm Norm Spellman. We met a few times when I started the avatar training, when we were getting ready to start the simulations and learning about the link machines."

Jerryhandelman shook Normspellman's hand, a gesture Neytiri had seen the Sky People do with each other before many times, but this time it seemed almost forced, like Jerryhandelman was going through the motions. "Yes, of course I remember you Norm. It's been a while. You still owe me a chess game after that last one. But right now, we have other things to to discuss."

Maxpatel stepped in and gestured over to some empty tables. "Then I suggest we get this show on the road!" Neytiri wondered about that. What was this "show" and where was this "road" they were supposed to getting to?

They all moved over to the benches at the side of the room. Jake and Neytiri sat on one bench and Jerryhandelman, Maxpatel, Normspellman all sat on another bench. It was strange to be sitting on the edge of this little bench, she thought, but it gave them and the Sky People a roughly equal footing when talking. They could at least look at each other while they talked.

Jake spoke first. "So, Jerry. Why'd you bring us here and what is so goddamn important that we had to drop everything to come here for you?" He said, obviously angry but trying to suppress it.

Neytiri could read her mate's moods very well by now, and she knew why he was upset. They did have a new home to move into that that would take time, time they couldn't fritter away. But, she was also curious about why this man had summoned them here. She kept her annoyance to herself, for the moment. This man had something important to talk to them about, that was clear.

Jerryhandelman responded. "Well Jake, that's one way to break the ice." Neytiri wondered what this "ice" was and why it was broken. Jerryhandelman continued. "I might as well introduce myself so you know where I'm coming from. My name is Dr. Jerry Handelman." He looked at Neytiri with his deep blue eyes, a look that made it seem like he could See right through her soul. "And for Neytiri's benefit, I guess you could say I am from the Geek Clan and I am here to save the world."

Jake seemed even more put off. "The Geek Clan, eh? That's original. I wasn't aware the world needed saving."

Jerryhandelman looked at her mate for a moment. "Yes, it does, and I'm the one to do it and I need your help to do it. And by the way, the 'Geek Clan' is about as original as the 'Jarhead Clan' if you ask me."

Jake wasn't having any of this. "So you thought you'd just drop in and 'help' us? What if we don't need or want your help, Dr. Handelman of the Geek Clan?"

"Well, Jake considering it was you who asked Eywa for help, the least you could do is be a little more grateful when your prayer gets answered."

"Huh?" Jake muttered, getting angrier, "and when exactly when was it I asked you to come help us? I don't remember anything like that."

Jerryhandelman paused for a moment, "Remember what you said in your statement back to Earth? 'I prayed to Eywa the night before the battle for Her help, because I knew I could not defeat the Sky People alone.' Well Jake, here I am." He held his hands out, palms open, toward Jake. "Ready to help. Do you want my help or not?"

Jake was starting to get a bit flustered and Maxpatel looked like he was about to say something when Neytiri decided to speak up.

"What kind of help do you think we need, Jerryhandelman?" She asked him, hoping her question would draw him out.

"Does your husband," he pointed at Jake, "realize just how big a hornet's nest he stirred up back on Earth when you guys kicked the RDA off this world?"

She was about to ask what a "hornet" was when Jake answered, even more angry then before.

"Yeah, we kicked their sorry asses and we kicked them off our world. You got a problem with that?"

"'The aliens went back to their dying world'" Jerryhandelman responded, sounding like he was repeating something he'd heard. "Yeah, I saw the statement you sent back to Earth, and I watched all your video logs too. You kicked their asses, but what will you do when they come back?"

"My video logs, how did you get those?" Jake asked him.

"It's a long story, I won't get into it now, but let's just say that I got access to them and leave it at that for now. Back to my question: what do you when the Sky People come back, Jake?"

"We'll fight them again, and we'll defeat them again until they finally learn their lesson, leave us alone, and stay off our world! Eywa herself will stop them!" her mate was practically shouting, his anger boiling up.

Neytiri was also starting to get angry with this man, but she was confused. Why would the Sky People come back here ever again after they'd been defeated?

She asked that question of Jerryhandelman and he looked stunned.

"Jake," he looked at her mate, "has anyone told your wife why the Sky People came here in the first place? And more importantly, why they'll come back here, to this world?"

Jake didn't answer at first, then he said something about it not being important to tell her.

Neytiri's stomach lurched, she was suddenly very, very afraid. Would the Sky People come back here to this world? Jake had told her that some of their ships would be coming here, over the next few months and years, but that their ships could be forced to return to their world, rather than coming down and landing here. Was he wrong?

Her fear must have been obvious to Jake. "None of us told Neytiri or any of the other Na'vi why the Sky People came here because it didn't matter anymore once we'd gotten them off the planet. They can't land here anymore. We control this base. They have nowhere to land. They have no base of operations from which to launch any attacks against us and if they try, Eywa will stop them."

Jerryhandelman didn't seem very impressed with that. "That's all good and fine, Jake. But what will you do if they drop a small asteroid on your head, which they are entirely capable of doing? In fact, they could probably drop several small asteroids around a kilometer in size on this world and in a few years, there's nothing left alive down here larger than the Pandoran equivalent of a mouse. Or they could lob a few kinetic projectiles at you at .7c and wipe you out that way. Hell, they could lob an antimatter bomb down here and wipe you out. Then what's to stop them from coming down here in force to mine all the Unobtanium they want without ever having to deal with those pesky Na'vi and their deity Eywa? What do you do then, Jake? Or what if they go to one of Polyphemous' other moons and set up another base of operations from which they launch a big attack against you in ten or twelve years. What do you do then, Jake?"

Her mate seemed at once angry and helpless. He had no words and looked like he was about to get up and leave. Before he did something that rash, Neytiri held up her hand and looked right at Jerryhandelman.

"Are you telling me the Sky People could come back here? To our world?" She was starting to get scared again, and she knew Jake would pick up on that, so she tried to sound as even as possible. "And what is this Un-ob-tan-ium you mentioned?" she continued, also curious about that.

"Yes they can and yes they will unless they're stopped." He answered. He pointed out past the shattered windows toward the direction of that enormous crater the Sky People had dug into the ground, that crater that was a blight upon the land and upon her people.

"That hole in the ground is why they will come back here. It's also why they destroyed your Hometree and it's why they came here in the first place. Unobtanium just a rock to you but to the Sky People, it's worth more than the most precious stones you can imagine. We use it to make fueling our civilization and our world much easier. It is absolutely essential to our race, and the Sky People will kill for it. Your world has it and that is why they'll come back here unless they're stopped."

He opened the little pack he was holding next to him and removed something, a small, gray rock. He tossed it over to her. "This is the reason the Sky People came here in the first place and it's the reason they'll come back unless they're stopped for good. That rock is worth a lot of Sky People money to the RDA and they will come back here to get it, because this world is the only known source of Unobtanium. Neytiri, they will kill you and your people and destroy this world in order to get that rock if they have to."

"And you can stop them?" she asked, this time genuinely curious how this one man could stop the Sky People from coming here to menace them ever again.

Jake was starting to get a bit agitated. "By yourself, I suppose." he muttered. She took his hand to calm him down. "Tell us more." she said.

Jerryhandelman looked at her for a moment, then waved around the room with one of his hands.

"You and Jake don't realize it, but you are both in danger. Everyone here is in danger and the danger isn't way, way off in the future. It's coming and you won't be able to stop it. Your enemies are very, very powerful and they will come back in much greater numbers unless they are stopped. You cannot stop them. This is a war you can't fight because it involves a kind of fighting that doesn't use bows, arrows, or even guns. This is a fight you aren't prepared for and if it comes here, when it comes here, you will lose. End of story."

His words chilled the room. Neytiri found herself beginning to wonder if the Sky People were not some unstoppable legion of demons. She was beginning to get very afraid. "Then how do we stop them?" she asked him, trying to keep the fear out of her voice but also wondering how you could fight without bows, arrows, or guns.

"You stop them by out-thinking them." was his response, a response she didn't expect.

She was about to ask another question when Maxpatel interrupted. "Jerry, let's start from the beginning. How did you get here and why did you come here?"

Jerryhandelman looked at Maxpatel for a moment, then back to Neytiri. "I'll get to that in time. Neytiri, do you realize that Jake's life is in danger?"

"Danger? From where?" she asked, the fear beginning to creep back into her voice.

Jerryhandelman looked at her mate very pointedly. "The RDA has placed a very substantial bounty on Jake's head, just so you know. Among other things, they're calling you a traitor to the human race. Some of the other things they're saying about you, you probably don't want to know."

"What's a 'bounty' and why does that mean danger to Jake?" she asked, now very curious again, curiosity momentarily overcoming fear.

"A bounty is a price they will pay someone from the Sky People if that person can bring them Jake Sully alive, or dead." was Jerryhandelman's response, still looking at Jake.

Her mate seemed slightly amused. "So how much am I worth? He asked, in a joking fashion.

"500 million alive, 250 if you're dead, payable in full to anyone who wants to come out here, get you, and bring you back to Earth." Jerryhandelman said, in a simple, declarative tone that sent a chill through her soul. She squeezed Jake's hand again, comforting herself with his presence.

"It's probably a pretty safe guess that you don't want Jake to be killed or taken back to Earth as a captive of the RDA," Jerryhandelman said, looking at her, "that would suck dead donkey chunks for you, correct?"

She could only nod, holding Jake's hand in hers.

"Only 500 hundred mil," Jake said, almost laughing. "I thought I would be worth more than that to them!"

Neytiri's heart was starting to beat faster. She was suddenly very afraid for Jake and for herself.

Jerryhandelman must have seen that she was starting to look scared. "Don't worry too much, Neytiri, they can't get to you and Jake yet, but they will eventually. I am here to do everything in my power to make sure they don't ever harm you, your husband, your people, or this world ever again, but I need Eywa's help to do that."

He pointed to his head. "There is information and knowledge here, in my head, that Eywa needs in order to defend herself and you against the threat from the Sky People. I have a message to deliver to her, a message that only I can deliver to her. That is the only way for Eywa to defend herself. Once I have delivered that message, then it will be up to Eywa to decide what to do with it."

Jake was starting to get curious now too, curiosity overcoming his anger. "Why you?" he asked. "Why can't you just tell us what this message is and let us pass it along to Eywa?"

"Because you won't understand it. Because it would take me too long to try and explain it to you. I can't teach you or Neytiri this knowledge and I can't explain it to you. The only thing I can do is give this knowledge to Eywa and let her decide what to do with it. Since I don't have a biological data port on the back of my head like you do and I don't have the time to grow an avatar to deliver the message, that left me with only one choice. Get myself from Earth to Pandora and deliver the message in person. I have to let Eywa take me into herself, make a copy of me, and if I am a good boy, then she'll kick me back out into the world of the living so she and I can carry out the plan me and some other Sky People came up with back on Earth. That's why."

"You would risk your life for us?" Neytiri asked, now beginning to See something about this man she hadn't understood before.

"Yes. And?" he held out his hands.

"You understand you could die if you try to pass through the eye of Eywa?

"Yes. So?" he responded, a little angry himself. "Excuse me, Neytiri, but I already have risked my life for you and your people, just by getting myself here."

"So how did you do that, Jerry?" Maxpatel said, getting impatient now.

Jerryhandelman looked at Maxpatel, then Normspellman. "I'm about to get to that, Max, just wait a little bit. The short answer is we finally cracked quantum teleportation by using my theories when I figured out the mechanism behind quantum entanglement, and we figured out how to do it on a macroscopic scale." He continued, a little bit flustered, but clearly now ready to start talking.

"I might as well try and explain this from the beginning. Back over there on Earth, there is a tired, dying world, filled with eleven billion human beings, a world some of us are trying to save. Jake, in case you didn't realize it, there are a lot of us back home who are sick and tired of the crap the RDA has been feeding us for over a century now and we're ready to do something about it. We're the Resistance, sort of like the French Resistance in WWII. There is an incipient civil war brewing back home, a war about to erupt between those of us who will no longer play lapdog to our corporate overlord and those who still want to continue believing in the RDA and everything they stand for.

"Right now, the RDA is spreading lies about what happened here and what they did and a lot of people are starting to believe them. Jake, I am afraid that if this war erupts into a shooting war, we will lose. And if we lose, you lose. It's that simple. If we don't stop them now, there will be no one to stop them from coming back here in their hordes. That's why we have to stop them now before it's too late. Time is of the essence, Jake. We're running out of it and so are you."

His words brought everyone up. "You can stop them?" Jake asked, now beginning to understand where this Jerryhandelman was coming from, even if he didn't quite understand the gravity of the situation, as Neytiri was starting to understand it.

"Yes. Some of us high up in the Resistance came up with a plan, or rather, several plans. However, when you kicked the RDA off the planet, you upset the apple cart. Carefully laid plans that had been in the works for years had to be scrapped and whole new plans had to be thought up on short notice. Now we have a plan to deal with the situation, but it requires Eywa's participation and involvement. We need her and she needs us to carry this out."

"So what does this plan involve?" Jake asked, again his curiosity coming to the fore.

"It involves a number of things that are more than a few steps above your pay grade, Corporal. It involves a level of strategic thinking that is a bit more than you can handle, which is why I am in charge of this operation, not you."

"So what, you're just gonna order us around?" Jake snapped.

"No, but I will be giving the orders on this one, Jake, and that's not negotiable, because I and the other people involved with this plan know what we're doing. I don't want you mucking things up. I know you want to do everything you can to fight for your world, but trust me, this is something too big for you alone. We know what we're doing. That is why I say this is a fight you can't fight and it's a fight you can't win. We can and will fight this fight for you, because we're fighting it for us as well. If we win, there will be no more wars and no more Sky People ships coming here to menace this world. Trust me, Jake. We know how to win this battle. You don't. It's that simple."

"Trust you, eh? And why should we do that?" Jake responded, his anger a bit subsided.

"Because I knew Grace Augustine for nearly twenty-five years. She was a friend and colleague. She would have wanted this and besides, you ought to be thanking me in any case. I'm indirectly responsible for you being here in the first place."

"How so?" Jake asked, his tone full of curiosity now. Neytiri was curious too.

"Because I am the one who talked your brother into coming out here in the first place, that's why. Your brother was my best student and the day I put the stole on his shoulders to give him his Ph.D was the proudest day of my life." His voice started breaking at that last part, the emotion beginning to come through. "He needed a job. Grace wanted me to come out here, but for a number of reasons I don't want to get into right now, I didn't want to. After your brother graduated, I talked him into coming out here, because the study of the living, biological network here was right up his alley, since his Ph.D. was on the subject of neural computing and networks. So, if I hadn't convinced Tom to come here, there would have been no reason for you to be here in his place after that bastard who killed him stole his wallet."

The room was silent for a few moments. Neytiri considered what Jerryhandelman had just said. "So if it had not been for you, Jake and I would never have met?"

He looked right at her, and again, she felt his eyes could See right through to her soul, which made her uncomfortable for a moment. "Yes, that is exactly what I am saying."

She held Jake's hand in hers. "Thank you." was all she could say at the moment.

"By the way, Jake, just so you know. You've become something of a folk hero back on Earth, at least amongst those of us who know what's going on and are trying to change things. You stood up to the RDA and you won. A lot of us are pretty damn proud of what you did here."

Jerryhandelman looked tired again, like he just wanted to lie down and sleep. Maxpatel looked at him and then asked him again, the question on everyone's mind. How had he gotten here?

"Now's the point where I get to tell you all the exciting story of the past week in the life of Jerry Handelman, Ph.D. I suppose everyone here has noticed there is something different about me so I'll ask Neytiri since she's the only native Na'vi here. What do you notice that is different about me from Max and Norm?"

That was an easy question. "You have no mask on your face!" she exclaimed.

"And what does that fact suggest about me?" he asked her.

"You're not like the other Sky People?" she answered, wondering if that was the right answer.

"That's right. I am different from almost all other Sky People in a number of respects, most noticeably in my intelligence level and my intellectual capacity. However the most germane difference between me, Max, and Norm is this." He said, as he lifted the garment all humans seemed to wear on their upper bodies. Everyone in the room, Neytiri included, was taken aback by what they saw.

There were a series of scars, mostly healed up now, but still a little red around the edges, one big long one right up the center of his chest and four smaller ones perpendicular to that one, as well as other, smaller scars on his abdomen.

The effect was as though he had tattooed a series of thin red lines on his chest. Maxpatel, the healer among the Sky People here, was the one most amazed by what he saw.

"What did they do to you?" He asked.

"I'll get to that in a moment, Max. I want to answer the question you asked first about how I got here. About a month ago, after Jake kicked the RDA off this world and sent his report to Earth, those of us high up in the Resistance realized we needed to act. The RDA was already starting to spin their loss here as those evil, greedy Na'vi savages rising up and kicking them off this world. We had Jake's video logs and his report plus the videos of Hometree, but trying to disseminate that against the RDA's propaganda machine was basically impossible. And it may be working. If they turn public opinion on Earth against you, then that's it. We won't be able to stop them at that point.

"So, we dusted off some old plans that had been on the shelf for a while, reformulated some parts of them, combined others, threw out parts of some, and came up with a new plan.

"That plan involved getting me from Earth to here, mostly because the greater part of this plan was my idea in the first place and no one else was crazy enough to try it but also because I am one of the very few people with the necessary skill set to carry this plan off. So, me and a couple of my colleagues came up with a way to get me from Earth to here that didn't involve me getting on an ISV and sleeping for six years. You of all people ought to understand that, Jake. 'Sometimes your whole life boils down to one insane move' and all that."

Jake looked at him oddly for a second, then the moment passed.

He paused for a moment to catch his breath. Now everyone in the room was paying rapt attention to his words, even Jake, who asked him how did he come up with a way to get from Earth to Pandora so quickly.

"It was an offshoot of something called quantum string theory," he told the room, "something we'd never considered before, but because of some things that happened here with Jake and his avatar, I had to reconsider some parts of my theory about how the avatar drivers communicated with their avatars and in looking over my theory, I realized some parts of the theory I used were incomplete and had to be rethought, which gave me an idea about getting here that one of my colleagues then took and ran with. He is the one who came up with a way to get me from Earth to Pandora."

"Which is what, exactly," Jake asked, "and how does that relate to me when I was in the link machine communicating with my avatar?"

"Jake, I couldn't explain how I got here to you even if I wanted to. It involves several different theories of quantum physics, graduate-school level mathematics, and a whole bunch of stuff you wouldn't understand. It's heady stuff, even for me. To your second question, haven't you ever wondered how we were able to keep you and the other avatar drivers in constant realtime communication with your avatars?" Jerryhandelman asked her mate.

"No, I hadn't really thought about it. What, you know about that?"

"Jake, I of all people ought to know 'about that' for a real simple reason. Let's see if you can guess who came up with the method of communication between the drivers and the avatars."

Neytiri jumped in to the conversation, "You did!" she pointed at Jerryhandelman, proud of herself that she had deduced that.

Jerryhandelman nodded to her, respect in his tone, "You move to the head of the class, Neytiri."

He continued, looking back at Jake. "Yes, I know how you, Norm, Grace and the other avatar drivers linked up to your avatars because I was the guy who came up with the the theoretical basis for the communications system between the avatar drivers and their Avatars. Dr. Lovecraft was the one who managed to make it all work, but he did it using my research.

"I came up with a theory based on quantum string theory and the basis of quantum entanglement. And it is the reason I got the Nobel Prize in Physics. I guess the Nobel Committee figured that giving me the prize in Physics was better than giving him one for Biology, given the questionable things he to make a practical communications system for the avatar program, unethical shit like that tends to piss people off. Jake gave me a few headaches when I read his report, because here he was gallivanting around Pandora, hundreds of kilometers from Hell's Gate, rounding up clans for the Great Battle against the Sky People, when the effective link distance was only supposed to be a few dozen kilometers, at most a hundred kilometers or so."

"Wait, there's a limit to the distance we could link up?" Normspellman asked, incredulous.

"Yep, or at least there was supposed to be a limit, but no one had ever tested it, because it was always assumed that the avatars would only be no more than a few dozen, maybe a hundred kilometers or so from Hell's Gate. Jake blew that one out of the water when he did the Toruk Macto thing, going all over this continent and around Pandora."

He turned to look at Maxpatel, "That must have played hell with your point-to-point calculations. You guys must have really been scratching your heads with all that."

Maxpatel looked confused for a moment, "Yeah, but we weren't keeping track of those. We stopped doing that years ago."

"Oh yeah, I forgot. That's right, you didn't need to do that anymore." Jerryhandelman answered.

"Point-to-point calculations? What's that all about?" Jake asked, sounding frustrated.

"It was basically a fancy way to keep track of where your avatars were, Jake." said Jerryhandelman, sounding a little frustrated himself.

"Wait, you're telling me you could track me when I was in my avatar?" Jake asked, as though he didn't believe what he was hearing.

"Yes," Jerryhandelman said, sounding like he was talking to an idiot. "That's exactly what I am saying, Jake. We had a way of keeping track of you."

Jake turned to Maxpatel, "Then why didn't you guys just tell Grace where I was when I got lost in the woods the first night!" Jake yelled, getting angry again.

"Because up until you got lost in the woods, keeping track of the avatars had never been an issue," Jerryhandelman answered, again sounding like he was talking to an idiot, "because it was always assumed that the avatars would be working together, in a team environment, with their radios, and mostly importantly, that they would be trained, experienced professional scientists who knew what the fuck they were doing, not ex-Marines blundering around the woods without a goddamn clue."

"Oh, that makes sense," Jake responded, in a small voice.

"Besides, if you hadn't gotten lost in the woods, your wife would never have rescued you."

"Good point, hadn't thought of that." Her mate answered, sounding pleased with himself.

"Jerry, getting back to the original question …" Maxpatel prodded.

"Oh yeah." Jerryhandelman said, "Long story short. We figured out a way to get me from Earth to Pandora, and we got the mechanism to do that set up about two weeks ago. One week ago, I was in an operating room in the medical school at Washington University, getting my lungs 'reconfigured' as it were, and a few other things in my innards redesigned so I can breath Pandoran air."

He pointed at Neytiri, "My lungs are somewhat closer to her lungs now than they are to human lungs. And certain parts of my innards have been 'redesigned' in a manner of speaking."

"Why did you need to do that?" Maxpatel asked, "Why couldn't you just bring an exopack with you or put one on as soon as you got here?"

"Two reasons, one, it meant having to move less mass from Earth to here, and two, I wasn't sure exactly where I would pop back into this universe, so I didn't want to worry about hitting some tree branch or having my mask get cracked or ripped off my face somehow. That would have ended my trip real quick now wouldn't it?"

"I suppose it would." Maxpatel answered.

"What do you mean by 'pop back into this universe'" Jake asked, curious.

Jerryhandelman turned to Neytiri and pointed to the rock he'd given her earlier. It was on the table next to her. He told her to pick it up, and she did.

"Neytiri, imagine taking that rock outside this building and throwing it. Only you're not just throwing it a little ways, you're throwing it a long, long way away, halfway around your world, onto a beach, where there is a particular grain of sand in a particular patch of sand that you want to hit. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, you're moving, and the grain of sand is also moving in relation to you, but not just moving in one way, but several different ways. Think you could do that?"

Neytiri allowed that no, she could not do that, wondering what Jerryhandelman was saying.

He continued, the room paying him rapt attention. "That is what I had to do with getting me here. Once we figured out how to send me from Earth to here, it was then my task to figure out where I would arrive when I got here. I had to take into account the rotation of the Earth, the orbit of Earth around the Sun, the orbit of Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B around each other and the orbit of Polyphemous around ACA plus the orbit of Pandora around Polyphemous as well as the motion of both stars in relation to the Sun, all relative to the center of this galaxy, around which both systems rotate. Pretty impressive bit of calculating, if I don't say so myself especially considering I had to do most of it it in my head."

Neytiri looked at the rock in her hand. "You threw yourself? Like a rock?"

"Well not exactly. Basically we figured out a way to get me from Earth to Pandora instantly rather than six of our years."

Normspellman spoke up, "I don't understand. Why were you worried about hitting branches and stuff like that?"

"That's an easy one, Norm." Jerryhandelman said, "Because this isn't an exact science yet. I was aiming for a point about 500 meters above the landing pad at Hell's Gate, a point I had to basically make an educated guess at where it would be in order to enter this universe there, which is why I had to make all those calculations about rotations, orbits, and all that fun stuff. Plus, I had to calculate the most favorable outcomes of my trip as they related to all the possible universes I could have ended up in so I wouldn't have materialized a kilometer under Hell's Gate instead of 500 meters above it. As it was, I only overshot Hell's Gate by about 30 kilometers, popping back into this universe at an altitude of about three kilometers above the forest floor. I was prepared for that eventuality, however because I had my wingsuit on."

Neytiri was curious, "What is a wingsuit?"

"It's what BASE jumpers use when we do jumps. It lets you get away from whatever it is you're jumping off of."

"Oh," Neytiri said, "what is 'base' jumping?"

"Buildings, Antennas, Spans, Earth. Jumping off buildings, bridges, cliffs, that sort of thing."

Neytiri was even more confused now. "I don't understand."

Jerryhandelman waved his hand to the side. "Never mind, it's not important." He continued. "As I said earlier, a week ago I was being operated on at the medical school and four days after that, I was making the final preparations for my trip, getting my things together, checking my parachute, that sort of thing, and I made the jump two days ago, stepping into the transfer chamber in my lab and popping out into the air 31 kilometers south of here and three kilometers above the forest floor."

"Wait a minute," Maxpatel said, sounding mystified now. "You just said you were in the hospital a week ago, getting major surgery and three days later you were up and around? How in the hell was that possible?"

Jerryhandelman indicated Neytiri, "Extracts from several plants from this world, Neytiri, that we can grow on my world are a big part of what got me healed up so quickly. The doctor who operated on me has been using some of these plant extracts to heal his patients quicker than just using our healers' regular methods. There are a number of people in the Resistance who've been trying to find medicinal and nutritional uses for Pandoran flora. We think we can cure river blindness, for example, and the Teylu worm would make for an excellent, supplemental protein source, if we can figure out how to raise them on Earth, just to name a couple examples off the top of my head. There are others."

Maxpatel mulled over that for a moment or two. "So you got healed quickly, but what exactly did they do to you?"

"The doctor who operated on me used a modification of a procedure that very wealthy people on Earth have started to have done on them that essentially puts built-in filters in their lungs so they don't have to wear masks to filter out the pollution in Earth's atmosphere. He just tweaked it a bit and regrew my lungs so they'd be closer to Neytiri's lungs than human lungs. He made it so my lungs would filter out the gasses here, like carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, that are toxic to humans. Basically, those gasses get filtered out of my lungs and sent down into my urinary tract along with my urine, so I can pass them right out of my system."

Normspellman chimed in, "So you can breath the air here, then?"

"Yep. Pretty much. I am a little short of breath, I am not in any shape to run any marathons and I am quite sure Neytiri could beat me hands down in a sprint here, but the important thing is I don't have to wear an exopack. I can breathe the air just fine here, more or less. About the only thing that's different now is that my pee isn't yellow anymore. It's now an elaborate, multi-hued affair that fizzes a little when I piss. Every time I take a leak, it's like I'm pissing a goddamn candy cane or something, a candy cane that glows a little bit, I might add. And it stings a little every time I take a leak. But they couldn't do anything for my eyes and mucous membranes, both of which are not happy with the irritation from the hydrogen sulfide here, but I am getting used to it, which is why I am not wearing the swimming goggles I was wearing when I came to this world. They kept fogging up."

"I still have some questions about the procedure you got last week, Jerry, but that can wait for now. Tell us the rest of the story. What happened when you popped into this universe three kilometers above the forest floor?"

"Well, I immediately saw that I was not over Hell's Gate, but way south of it. I could see it off in the distance. So, I spread my arms and legs out so I could descend safely down to where I could pop my parachute. But right after I did that, there were a couple ikran above me. They took an interest in me that I didn't like one bit, so I tucked into aerodynamic position and dropped down at terminal velocity. They didn't chase me very far and as soon as I could, I spread my wingsuit and glided down toward the forest canopy. I didn't have time to deploy my parachute because I was too close to the top of the canopy by that point. I didn't need it anyway. I glided down as far as I could and ended up bouncing off a few branches and big leaves on the way down, which broke my fall and when I hit the forest floor, I bounced off a big pile of shit, I am guessing it must have been Titanothere shit, I didn't check it real carefully.

"Once I got up and got my bearings, I packed up my wingsuit, put it in my pack, and then covered myself in as much of the dung I could stomach. I figured if I smelled like Titanothere shit, nothing would bother me. I had the maps and satellite scans of this area on my datapack and I could triangulate my position from the satellites in orbit. So, I then headed off in the direction of Hell's Gate, keeping my bearings by following the energy signature of the power plant here."

"You walked all the way from there to here, on foot?" Normspellman asked, apparently disbelieving what he was hearing. "Why didn't you call us up with a radio? We could have gone out and picked you up no problem."

"Because there was no way I was about to broadcast my location and the fact that I am here on an open, unsecured frequency that would have been picked up by the RDA satellites in orbit above this world and beamed back to Earth, which incidentally, just so you know, those satellites and their data can be both remotely controlled and accessed from the RDA's headquarters back on Earth, in theory, at least. That would have blown the whole operation right there," Jerryhandelman said, sounding a bit short with Normspellman, "what did you want me to do? Call you up, 'Hey Norm, old buddy, this is Jerry Handelman and I'm making a surprise visit to Hells' Gate but I'm thirty clicks south-southwest of you, so in case the RDA is listening in, Jerry Handelman is actually here when I'm supposed to be on Earth right now.' They would have immediately knows something was up and that would not have been good at all, now would it?"

Normspellman considered that for a moment or two. "So you walked all the way?"

"Yup. I walked on the forest floor for a while, then figured that I could climb up the trees and move from tree to tree, Tarzan-style if I needed to, which is basically what I did whenever I could, jumping from branch to branch, staying off the forest floor, which is where the creatures that wanted to make a meal out of me lived. I just avoided them as much as I could. I walked as quietly and silently as I could when I was on the forest floor. I'd reread Grace's book right before I left to reacquaint myself with what is and isn't edible here and which plants and animals are really dangerous to humans. That way I knew what to avoid, mostly. I mean, I was basically scared shitless, but I knew that curling up in a little ball and crying my eyes out at the fuckup my life has become over the past month would not do me, you guys, or anyone else any good. To get my mind off the fuckup my life has become, I pretended to be on a role-playing adventure in which I was trying get to the Castle of Doom in order to save the fair princess from the clutches of King Dorko. It worked."

"Did you see anything at all," Neytiri asked, wondering how this Sky Person had survived two whole days in the Pandoran jungle when Jake had not even gotten through one night without her saving him. This man must be a very resourceful Sky Person, she concluded.

"I think I might have heard a Thanator later on that day, off in the distance. I was on the forest floor at that point, crossing a clearing. I hustled across the clearing and climbed up the nearest tree until I was way off the forest floor and went back to the Tarzan routine for the rest of the day, as much as I could do given the circumstances."

"Tar-zan? Who's Tar-zan?" Neytiri asked. Jake told her it wasn't important at the moment and motioned to Jerryhandelman to continue his tale.

"I figured I could sleep up in the trees, near the top of the canopy. That way I could stay well away from anything on the ground that might threaten me, and if I was hidden in the branches, no ikran or Leonopteryx would menace me either. I found a suitable branch, ate a little of the food I brought with me, used my parachute as a pillow and my wingsuit as a blanket, and slept a few, fitful hours before the next morning, which was yesterday morning. When the sun came up, I got going again.

"The dung was starting to wear off by that point, mostly because I'd had to cross a couple largish streams and when I was walking on the forest floor, it would come off every time I brushed alongside a leaf or branch or whatever. That must have been why the viperwolves picked up my scent."

"A pack of nantang found you? How did you survive that?" Neytiri asked, amazed that this Sky Person was still here to tell the tale after an encounter like that.

"It was getting later on in the day when I first heard them. They were back along the way I'd come before, when I had to walk on the forest floor again. So, I went back up in the trees for a while and then back to the forest floor. They picked up my scent again that evening. I could hear them following me so I got as far as I could on the ground, then went back to the trees, and then climbed a tree as high as I could go. I spent that night in that tree, barely getting any sleep at all. I could hear them down on the forest floor, sniffing for me. Finally, early this morning, I decided to do something about the situation. I climbed down back to the level of the understory and did my Tarzan routine for a while, but they had locked onto my scent by that point.

"So, realizing that they were right on my tail and that they were not going to give up so easily, I dropped down to the forest floor, my WASP revolver at the ready. As soon as the first viperwolf came through the brush at me, I dropped it with one shot. The next one right behind it didn't realize what was waiting for it until it was too late. Same with the third one, even though it came at me from another direction. And the last one came at me from behind, but I heard it and whirled around, killing it instantly. As soon as it was dead, I turned around and ran. I figured the others in the pack would make a meal of their dead comrades and/or stay away from me and I was right. I didn't stop moving until I got to the edge of the cleared zone around Hell's Gate. That was about six hours ago. The rest is, as they say, history."

The room was silent for a moment as everyone took in his tale. Finally, Neytiri looked at him, her simmering resentment at what the Sky People had done so many times before coming to the fore.

"So, you killed four nantang just like that and went on about your day, like it was nothing." she muttered, angry at this man for what he had done. Killing four of Eywa's children like that was not a good thing and it very important to her that Jerryhandelman understand that.

"Look, it was either them or me, and since I am here for a very, very important purpose, I figured they were expendable. I'm sorry about the viperwolves but I had to do what I had to do. I apologize for the whole James Bond routine guys, with the radio silence and all the subterfuge but there are very, very good reasons for all the secrecy. Now I have come a very, very long way to deliver a message directly to Eywa, a message she needs to hear!"

"Jamesbond? Who is Jamesbond?" Neytiri asked, her curiosity momentarily overcoming her resentment. This man was like a living riddle, speaking of things and people she didn't understand.

Jerryhandelman looked confused for a second or two, "Uh, James Bond was a great Sky People warrior from a long time ago. He fought many battles and slew many enemies."

"And bedded many women!" Normspellman chimed in.

"Yeah, that too." Jerryhandelman muttered.

Neytiri was even more confused. "You were trying to be just like this Jamesbond?" she asked him. "He was your Spirit Warrior?"

"Uh, no not really, uh, he fought a lot of battles and killed many enemies and his deeds and exploits were known and celebrated in story and song across the length and breadth of all the lands of the Sky People and among every clan of Sky People. I was just trying to invoke his style, that's all."

"Even when you killed those nantang?" she asked, pointedly.

"Look, I am sorry about the viperwolves, but can you just let it go?"

Neytiri looked at him, anger in her tone. "No, killing Eywa's children like that is wrong. You should not have done that and you should be ashamed!"

He glared back at her and said, in a very petulant tone, "Look, don't take this the wrong way, Neytiri, but you can just bite me. Just bite me, okay!"

He put his head in his hands and slumped down a bit, obviously tired. Had he just asked her to bite him? Well, if that's what he wanted, then she would do it.

She got up and grabbed one of his hands, put it in her mouth and clamped down. Two things happened at that moment. Jerryhandelman yelped, and her mate, who was lost in his own world got up and yelled at her, "Neytiri! Stop! Don't move!"

She froze. "Jerry, do not move your hand!" Jake said. Jerryhandelman's eyes were wide open.

Her mate continued, "Neytiri, open your mouth and let go of Jerry's hand. She complied. He pulled his hand back and yelped. "Ouch, ouch, goddamnit!" he yelled at her.

"But you told me to bite you, so I did! Did you not want me to bite you? Then why did you tell me to bite you?" she answered back, at once mortified and angry at him.

Maxpatel got up. "I'm gonna go get a first aid kit. I'll be back in a few moments." He grabbed something from the wall and told Jerryhandelman to put it on his hand, then he left the room.

Jerryhandelman's hand was bleeding where she'd bitten down into it and he was holding it in his other hand, glaring at her.

"I'm sorry." she said, even more mortified now. "Did you not want me to bite you?"

"No, damn it. It's called sarcasm. You didn't have to take me literally!"

"What is 'sarcasm'?" Neytiri asked, now more mystified than ever.

Jerryhandelman glared at her for a second, "I don't imagine Grace taught you guys about sarcasm or something called 'irony' so I'm not even going to try to explain sarcasm to Neytiri the Amazon warrior princess catwoman chick from Pandora. It would take too long. I'm sorry, it's just the way I talk. Deal with it."

She was at once angry, mortified, and curious. Amazon warrior princess catwoman? Clearly there was much more to Jerryhandelman than what she thought Sky People were supposed to be. He was a mystery, but one she would like to unravel and understand. She wanted to know more about him, that was for sure.

"What did you just call me?" she asked him.

"Forget it, it's nothing, just more sarcasm. I just called you a woman in three different ways in the Sky People's language. I didn't mean anything by it. I'm sorry." he finished, looking at her.

She returned the look. "You don't need to apologize. Calling me a woman three different ways is a compliment to me because it means you think I am a woman and not a girl! But what is Amazon and who is Catwoman?"

He looked lost for a moment. "Um, the Amazons were an ancient race of mythical warrior women among one clan of the Sky People, called the Greeks. The ancient Greeks believed the Amazons were a race descended from their Gods and that they were fierce warriors. And, um, Catwoman is a very old mythical heroine among the Sky People, and um, she always fought for what is right and for the downtrodden. Uh, some Sky People women call themselves 'chicks' because it's another word for 'woman' in the Sky People language."

"So," Neytiri concluded, "you just called me a fierce warrior who fights for those who have no voice and you called me a woman. How interesting! But what is a princess?"

"Uh, it's a word that means you're an important Na'vi female in your clan, I guess you could say."

"Then you have complimented me very well, Jerryhandelman!" she smiled.

"By the way," he continued, "did you know why we Sky People gave the name "Thanator" to the largest predator here?"

She didn't know, and told him as such. "It's called that because the ancient Greeks believed in many gods. Their God of Death was called Thanatos. So "Thanator" simply means, "Bringer of Death" in the Sky People tongue."

"That is a very appropriate name, Jerryhandelman!" she finished.

Maxpatel returned a minute later and looked at the wound. It was still bleeding, but mostly had stopped. Neytiri reached into her pouch and took out a roll of leaves from a plant used for medicinal purposes. There was a paste made of crushed leaves inside. "Here. Put this on the wound. It will help the healing." she told Maxpatel.

He took the paste wordlessly and bound Jerryhandelman's wound easily and efficiently. As he was doing that, Jerryhandelman looked first and Normspellman, then at Jake.

"I need Norm to contact one of the people back on Earth from the Resistance, using the open comm link back to Earth, the one you used to send your report back to Earth. I am not supposed to be here, so I can't make that call. Norm is to tell that person that the ikran he saw last week came by Hell's Gate for a return visit. That will be the code they need to know that I did indeed land and I am here at Hell's Gate. That person will then contact some other people who will send the things I need to build a machine here like the one in my lab back home, so there can be secure, two-way communication between here and Earth."

Maxpatel finished binding the wound. Neytiri looked over the bandage for a moment. Maxpatel was a very good healer, she noted.

"How will they know where to send the stuff to us," Jake asked, "without all those calculations and everything you did? And why do we need a machine here?"

Jerryhandelman dug into his pack and removed some sort of little boxlike thing with little buttons on the side. "This unit contains what amounts to a homing beacon that will tell them where to send the box of stuff I need to build a duplicate machine here. Basically, it's a one-way trip. The only way to get back to where you came from is with a machine at the other end."

"Oh," her mate said, "that makes sense."

Jerryhandelman continued. "Right now, Jake, the biggest thing I need from you and Neytiri is permission for me, Max, and Norm to go to the Tree of Souls so I can let Eywa kill me and then bring me back to life."

He looked at Neytiri, "I know that the Tree of Souls is your people's most sacred place, but it is the only place I can do this. If there was any other way, I would have done it that way, but I can't. I have to go there to do this. If not, then I will get the stuff I need to go home, I will go home, and you can go ahead and believe whatever you want to believe about the Sky People. If and when they come back here, you will deal with them in whatever way you can deal with them. Or, you and Jake can follow me down the rabbit hole and see where it takes all of us. Will you let me do that, Neytiri?"

She was quiet for a long moment, then looked at Jake, then back to Jerryhandelman. "Yes, if this is what you need, and it will help us, then yes, you may come to the Tree of Souls, Jerryhandelman. I give you permission to do this."

Jake took charge at that point, his leadership now coming to the fore. "All right, professor, we'll do what you ask. How long do you need to get everything set up here? We need to get as many Omaticaya and members of other clans to the Tree of Souls so we can do this successfully."

"I will need about a day to get the machine set up here. Max, how much refined Unobtanium did they leave behind?"

"I'm not sure, probably 30 or 40 metric tons."

"Good, we'll need to use some to make running the machine here a lot more efficient and once it is set up, I'll have to send some back to Earth so we don't need to use as much antimatter to run the machine there."

Jake looked to Neytiri, "Alright then, Dr. Handelman, we have to go back to our new home, explain the situation to Mo'at, and then start getting people over to the Tree of Souls. How 'bout we meet you at the Tree of Souls in five days?"

"That should be fine, Jake. By then, I will have the machine set up and running and we'll have two-way transportation between here and Earth. Then, all I need to do is get to the Tree of Souls so Eywa can kill me."

Neytiri turned to Jerryhandelman, "There is something I need to know, Jerryhandelman. I want to trust you completely, but I have to know something. Why would Grace want us to do this?"

"Good question." he answered. "And I will answer it in this manner, with an answer that may not make complete sense to you right now, but will in time. You're the Tsahik for the Omaticaya, even though you mother hasn't gone to be with Eywa yet, she turned that responsibility over to you, am I correct? She wanted you to be Tsahik now that you're mated to Jake, correct?"

"Yes, that is correct." she said, wondering why he was asking her a question like that when he clearly knew the answer already.

"Then let me give you a free piece of advice and answer your question. In your career as a Tsahik, you will never, ever again have a 'sign from Eywa' as clear and as easy to understand as this one. I can guarantee you that you will have very, very few signs from Eywa that you can talk to and, even better yet, will talk back to you. And I can pretty much guarantee you that this is the only time you will ever get a sign from Eywa that comes in the form of a Nobel-prize winning physicist with two doctorates to his name and a three-digit IQ to boot. Grace was a very good friend of mine and an inspiration to us all and believe me when I tell you, I am doing exactly what she would have wanted me to do because it is the only way possible to complete what she started here."

She pondered his answer for a moment, then smiled. "That sounds like a good answer. Dr. Handelman, I trust you."

"Good. I'm sorry about the viperwolves." He said.

"And I am sorry I bit you." she replied.

"I guess that makes us even." he said, now smiling too.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: In Which A Soul Is Taken and then Returned

Dusk had settled upon the Tree of Souls. There were dozens upon dozens of clan members all around the Tree, and many from other clans. There were almost as many Na'vi around the Tree as there had been when Jake had permanently transferred his soul to his Na'vi body, Neytiri realized. The word of Toruk Macto carried much weight, she smiled as she realized why there were as many Na'vi here. When he said he needed them, they came. He was becoming more of a leader every day, and the thought warmed her heart.

Mo'at and Jake were waiting at the base of the Tree. Jake had his radio with him. "Max will be here very shortly. They're in the air right now, flying one of the Samsons that survived. Jerry is with them, of course, and Max and the other doctor are with them too. Norm is also with them as well."

"Good," Neytiri said, "it will be good to have at least one Sky People healer here when Jerryhandelman passes through the Eye of Eywa."

Just then, they heard the familiar sound of the Samson's rotors. It was coming up around the valley, heading their way and less than a minute later, it had landed a little ways away from the bowl where the Tree sat, as per Jake's instructions.

Max and the other Sky People got out and came walking up through the crowd. That they could even come here spoke volumes about Jake's leadership, Neytiri thought, that familiar feeling of love for Jake stealing over her heart, warming her from the inside out. Outsiders were forbidden here, but if the Toruk Macto said it must be done, then these Sky People would be allowed to come here. This was the only way to save the Great Mother from the depredations of the evil Sky People and so, here were their friends, the good Sky People, ready to do what had to be done. Jerryhandelman was wearing a loose-fitting cloak of some sort, Maxpatel had called it a "hospital gown" or something like that. He, Jerryhandelman, and the other Sky People healer walked up to the base of the Tree and presented themselves. Normspellman followed behind.

"Jake, everything is set up at Hell's Gate." Jerryhandelman told her mate. "I got word back to my people, they got the stuff to me, and I now have a machine set up at Hell's Gate to get back to Earth. In fact, I did so the other day. I had to get back to deal with some stuff at the university, but also to make sure the plan is still in place."

"Good, and I take it the plan is ready?" her mate asked.

"As much as it can right now. Turns out we have a little bit of breathing room in terms of time, more than I realized. My people have thrown a few roadblocks in the RDA's path. Things may not be going the way the RDA wants. However the situation back home is still very fluid and things might change. But, to get things going, Eywa has to kill me. So here I am."

"Come forward, Jerryhandelman," Mo'at said, gesturing to him. He stepped up to the base of the Tree and removed his garment. Neytiri noticed he had little body hair, unlike some Sky People she had seen. Again, she noticed how his body proportions were almost exactly like those of a typical Na'vi man, even though he was too short, from her point of view.

Jerryhandelman looked at the base of the Tree, then turned to Jake. "Tell you the truth, Jake. I am scared shitless right now."

Jake nodded. He understood. Jerryhandelman then turned to Neytiri.

"I may not come back. I need to say something to your people before I go so they understand what I am doing here, in case I don't come back. Will you translate for me?"

She could only nod her head in the way she had seen Sky People do before. She could feel the emotion underneath the surface.

He walked over and stood next to her and Jake. She told the crowd the Sky Person needed to speak and she would translate his words.

"Tell them I came here to help them. If it be the will of Eywa that I should not return, let them know that I want the knowledge I am giving to Eywa to be used to free them forever from the threat of the evil Sky People who came here to take, to destroy, and to cause pain."

She translated his words. She could see that he was very, very scared.

He turned to Normspellman, and took Normspellman's hand. "In case I don't come back, you can have my chess set." Normspellman could only nod too. He turned to Maxpatel, "That datacube I gave you back at Hell's Gate is in case I don't return. Plug it in to the main computer and go from there. It will tell you who to contact, how to get in touch with them, and such so that this plan can be carried out." Maxpatel could also only nod, he was also starting to get choked up.

Jake and Maxpatel helped him lay down on the ground. "When you start feeling Eywa coming for you, just relax and let Her take you." Jake said, speaking from experience.

"Well, I figure 50 percent odds are a lot better than nothing. Grace did not come back but you lived. No matter what happens, this is the right thing to do."

As soon as he had closed his eyes, the ceremony began.

"O Great Mother, let this man become one with you, hear his words, bring him back to us!" Mo'at began chanting.

"Hear us, O Great Mother!" Neytiri and the rest responded.

The Tree began to glow, its roots and tendrils lighting up in time with the collective chant. Tendrils from those roots climbed upward, enveloping Jerryhandelman's arms, legs, and the base of his neck in tiny ribbons of white.

"O Great Mother, heed this man's wisdom. Bring him back to us, let him walk amongst us again!" her mother chanted.

"Help us, O Great Mother" everyone chanted.

Jerryhandelman twitched, then gasped for air for a moment, then his eyes flew open, then nothing. Nothing at all.

Jake motioned to Maxpatel to come over. Maxpatel examined Jerryhandelman, then looked at Jake for a long moment.

"He's dead." was all he could say.

Mo'at held up her hand. The chanting stopped.

"He'd better come back quick," Maxpatel muttered.

"What do you mean?" Neytiri asked.

"If he doesn't return to this body within about two or three minutes, he will suffer permanent brain damage. His brain can only go without oxygen for maybe a minute, perhaps a couple of minutes without oxygen. Anything longer than that and he might as well be dead. "

"Oh," was all she could say. She prayed a silent prayer to Eywa to bring Jerryhandelman back to them. They needed him and so she trusted Eywa that She would bring him back to them.

Some moments later, she wasn't sure exactly how long, and Jerryhandelman suddenly gasped for breath and spasmed upward. He collapsed back to the ground, his eyes wide open.

He had returned, or so they hoped. Maxpatel leaned over him. Jerryhandelman began gasping again, then reached up and clutched at Maxpatel.

"Water." was all he could croak out.

Maxpatel took out the container of water he had brought with him and poured a little into Jerryhandelman's mouth. Jerryhandelman immediately coughed most of it out, but swallowed some.

"Can you get up?" Maxpatel asked.

"Help me up." Jerryhandelman said, slowly and quietly, almost at a whisper.

It took her a moment, then it hit her.

He had just spoken in perfect Na'vi.

Maxpatel looked confused. "Was that Na'vi? What did he say?"

Neytiri looked to Normspellman, then Jake. "Yes, that was in Na'vi. He does not speak our language, correct?" she asked them.

"Nope. Not a word." Maxpatel said.

They helped him up. "How do you feel?" Maxpatel asked him, in English.

"As though I had been shat from the hindquarters of a Titanothere," he responded, again in perfect Na'vi. He looked right at Neytiri and said, "I See you." in perfect, fluent Na'vi. The look he gave her was frightening in its clarity. He was a different person that the man who had lain on the ground a few minutes before. Eywa had changed him.

He leaned forward, Maxpatel and Normspellman holding him. Neytiri came around to help him when he said, "I think I'm gonna hurl." Maxpatel looked at Neytiri, "Uh, Neytiri, you'd better get out of the way. She stepped to the side, wondering what 'hurling' was. She found out a moment later when he vomited his last meal. "Great. I come to the Tree of Souls and I start puking! What will the Great Mother think of me?" That last part was in Na'vi, again perfectly fluent.

"I'm taking him right back to the infirmary at Hell's Gate." Maxpatel said, as he and Normspellman helped Jerryhandelman down from the base of the Tree. "He comes back to us and he's suddenly speaking fluent Na'vi? Something's up."

Jake looked to Neytiri, then Mo'at. "Well, I guess it worked then." as Maxpatel and the others helped Jerryhandelman to the Samson.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: A Question of Atmosphere

The next day, Neytiri and Jake went to Hell's Gate. Maxpatel, Jerryhandelman, and Normspellman were in the infirmary. Jake wanted to come in and see Jerryhandelman, but there was a problem. The infirmary was enclosed and contained only human air. Neytiri realized what this would mean. If she and Jake were to enter the room, they would have to breath the air the Sky People breathed, the air that Maxpatel and Normspellman breathed every day.

Could they do that? Maxpatel thought that was an interesting question. He met them outside the main control building of Hell's Gate.

"Tell you guys what. We'll remove the air in the outer room, the one that leads to the outside, by the avatar shack, and we'll replace it with the air in here. The two of you will have to go in and close the door to the outside. If either one or both of you start feeling really dizzy, lightheaded, or otherwise ill then I want you to IMMEDIATELY head for the outer door. Get back outside."

They went around to the side of the building where the Sky People healers worked. Neytiri could see the outbuilding where Jake had told her the dreamwalkers kept their dreamwalker bodies. It was easily big enough for Na'vi, it had to be, of course, but it still looked like a human building.

They came to the door. Maxpatel went in first, followed by Jake, then Neytiri.

Inside, down the narrow corridor and through another door, there were two large Na'vi-sized beds, a big glass panel above them on the right wall, and a smaller, human-sized door on the other end of the room. Maxpatel pointed to that door.

"I will go through there, and started purging the Pandoran atmosphere. If it looks good for you and you feel alright, then you'll come through that door and into the main room. I'd like the both of you to lie down on those gurneys there so in case you start getting sick, you don't fall over."

Neytiri nodded. "Is Jerryhandelman in the other room?" she asked.

"He's in another room right now, and if this works, you will be able to talk to him in a few minutes. Perhaps in a soon as two or three minutes."

That sounded reassuring enough. She and Jake went to the gurneys and laid down on them as Maxpatel closed the inner door. "I'll be up on the other level, behind that glass panel." he told them right before he closed the door.

Jake looked around. "This is the first time I've been back to this room in over four months, almost five months now."

"You were here before?" Neytiri asked.

"Yes. I was on this very gurney I am lying on right now and Norm's avatar was on the one you're lying down on. This was the second day I was on Pandora."

There was a sudden loud, hissing sound and Neytiri was about to get up and investigate. Jake motioned for her to stay calm.

Maxpatel stood behind the glass panel. His voice came from a speaker in the wall behind them.

"I've started purging the air, it should be a few minutes." he said.

Jake made a strange gesture with his right thumb, making a fist out of his hand and holding his thumb up to Maxpatel. Neytiri wondered what that was all about. "We're ready, Max." Jake said.

The air began to change. She could feel it. It was becoming thinner. She started feeling a little dizzy, but that passed soon enough. She looked over to Jake. He was smiling at her. "This is kind of fun!" he said, laughing. The hissing continued for another minute or so. She was feeling a little lightheaded, but nothing major yet and she wasn't feeling sick at all.

After a little while longer, the hissing stopped. Maxpatel called down to them from the speaker.

"How do you guys feel?" he asked.

Jake got up from the gurney and walked over to the glass panel. "I feel a little lightheaded, but that's about it."

Neytiri got up off her gurney. She put her feet on the ground and carefully got up. She felt a little dizzy and lightheaded, but nothing she could not handle.

"I am feeling fine, Maxpatel." she said, "a little dizzy, but that is about it."

"Great. The Pandoran air has been removed, so I will now go open up the inner door so you can come on in."

A few moments later, he appeared at the inner door, looking up at them. "Come on in, you'll have to crouch down to get through this door here but you're almost in to the inside of Hell's Gate."

They both followed him inside. The inner door led through another, smaller corridor and to another door, this one also human-sized. This door opened into a little bit bigger corridor, but still human-sized. She could crouch down reasonably comfortably but her mate really had to bend over to walk comfortably. She could feel that he didn't like it much.

Finally, they came to a room a little bit down the hall. Maxpatel opened the door and motioned for them to come in. Jerryhandelman was sitting on the side of the bed in this room, looking a bit tired, but seeming to be ready for action.

"How are you feeling, Jerryhandelman?" Neytiri asked him, in Na'vi.

He looked at her oddly for a moment, then answered, in English.

"I'm feeling alright, for now. Max got plenty of water in my system, my throat isn't all dry, and I am holding down my food. Not too bad for a guy who had the pleasure of dying last night and then being brought back to life by the Great Mother."

She smiled. He seemed to be himself again. "You can understand me?" she asked him, in Na'vi, looking at him carefully.

"Yes." he said, in Na'vi, then back to English, "more or less."

"We're still trying to figure out what happened." Maxpatel said, looking at her and Jake. "We scanned his brain and as far as we can see, he's still got a normal human brain, more or less. We think Eywa gave Jerry's mind a bit of an 'upgrade' if you will when she returned him to his body."

Jerryhandelman looked at her, then Jake, then Maxpatel. "It's like I can see the Na'vi words in my head, but getting them out through my mouth is a lot harder."

"Well, we'll try to give you lots of practice!" Neytiri exclaimed, in Na'vi, then she switched back to English. "The Great Mother chose to give you the ability to understand our speech, so you might as well learn how to speak it too."

He shrugged at that. "Speaking of the Great Mother, what does she say?"

"About what?" Jake asked, mystified.

"Uh, about the plan I gave to her and whether she agrees to help carry it out?" he asked, sounding a bit short with them.

"We have not asked for guidance from Eywa, Jerryhandelman. We were concerned about you and your well-being first." Neytiri said.

"I appreciate that, but we need to know what she wants to do." he replied.

"Didn't you ask her when you were in there with her?" Jake snapped, sounding a little short with Jerryhandelman.

She didn't want this to devolve into a shouting match, so she held up her hand.

"What is it you need us to do?" she asked him.

"Get to Eywa and pray. Ask her if she likes this plan we came up with and what she wants to do next." he said, sounding a bit exasperated with her. "I thought it was pretty obvious when we discussed this before. I don't have the queue on the back of my skull so it's up to you to find out what your deity wants me to do. I am here to serve both her and you, so you need to find out and soon."

"Will you answer my question?" Jake muttered.

"Alright, fine. I didn't ask her about it because I didn't have a whole lot of time, considering I was lying there dead on the ground. She downloaded me, I showed her the plan, gave her some specifics about how to implement it, she made a copy of me, and indicated she would consider it. Then she kicked me back out into the world."

"And that was that." Jake said, sounding a bit mollified now.

"Yes. That was that. More or less. I figured it was pretty obvious that I'm not the one to interpret the will of Eywa. I don't want to go back there to the Tree of Souls to get myself downloaded again just to find out the answer. That whole 'passing through the Eye of Eywa' thing kind of sucked dead donkey balls, if you ask me, and it's not something I want to go through ever again. So why are you still here? Why aren't you at the Tree of Souls, asking Eywa for guidance?"

Jake and Neytiri headed for the door. Maxpatel stopped them. "We can fly you over in the Samson, the same one that took Jerry over to the Tree in the first place. We have a couple avatar drivers that are also pilots. It'll use fuel we can't replace, at the moment, but it's worth it in the long run. It will be quicker and you can get back here sooner."

"Fine. Whatever." Jerryhandelman muttered. "But do what you have to do in order to get an answer and soon. The fate of the world hangs in the balance here."

"What are these 'dead donkey balls' you speak of, Jerryhandelman?" Neytiri asked him, smiling in spite of herself. This man spoke in riddles but somehow or another, she knew this was intended to be humorous and not to be taken seriously.

He waved to the side. "Never mind. That's more sarcasm. Just forget it."

"That's what I thought." she said, smiling.

As they left the room with Maxpatel, she heard Jake muttering, "Why couldn't Eywa have turned off his Sarcasm switch when he was in there with her!"

- SCENE BREAK -

The Samson sat on the tarmac, looking like an enormous insect of some sort. She had never really seen one up close and now she was about to get in this thing and it would fly her to the Tree? Neytiri wasn't sure what to think as they walked up to the Samson. This was a completely new experience for her.

"Don't sweat it," her mate said, sensing her unease, "it's just a machine, that's all. It won't hurt you. Everything will be fine."

"I know that, my love, I just … it's just that these machines have been used for so long to cause harm to us, to my people. How does this machine work? Who will be flying it? Jake, I am a little scared." She said as she turned to him.

He took her by the hand. "Don't be afraid. I'll be right here beside you." He stepped up inside the craft and she followed behind him. He sat down in one of the seats and she sat down next to him, holding on to his hand with both her hands.

There was a strap of some sort on the seat and he put it around his waist. "You'll have to put the seat belt on yourself," he said, pointing to a similar strap next to her. She picked it up and held it, not sure what to do with it. "Take the end and attach it to the clip on the other part of the belt," he said, pointing to another strap. She put the two ends together and there was a clicking sound. Two straps had now become one.

"We're clipped in and we're ready." Jake said. "We just need the pilot and we're ready to rock and roll."

"Rock and roll?" Neytiri asked. "What's that?"

"Ah, never mind, just a saying the Sky People have. That's all." He pointed to a strange device hanging from the ceiling of the craft. "Put that on your head and you can hear me and the pilot. She complied. The device surrounded both her ears but it had a throat mike similar to the one she had used in the battle. She turned it on. "Can you hear me?" Jake asked. "Yes," she said, "I can hear you just fine." He smiled and took her hand again.

A moment later and there was a man walking up to the Samson. He walked up to the place where they were sitting. He held out his hand. "You must be Neytiri. My name is Richard Kimball and I will be flying you out to the Tree today."

She took his hand, in the manner she had seen Jake and other Sky People do, "Yes, I am Neytiri and this is Jake, my mate." Jake and Richardkimball nodded to each other. "We've met before, Neytiri, Richard is an avatar driver."

"And a pilot, both for the Samsons and a couple other kind of aircraft we have here at this facility." Richardkimball said as he walked around to the front of the craft.

He got inside and sat in the seat in front. "You do much flying?" Jake asked him as he settled in to his seat.

"Oh yeah, I have over a thousand hours in the Samson and something like two thousand hours in the Apache. I flew 'copters in the Army until I got out and decided to go back to school. I get a degree in botany and the next thing I know, I am headed to Pandora for a job as an avatar driver and now I end up flying 'copters again. What goes around comes around."

Her mate seemed to think this was funny, but Neytiri was watching, both fascinated and scared almost out of her wits as Richardkimball started the engines up, and a few moments later, they left the ground. She watched as the tarmac pulled away and Hell's Gate shrank to a miniscule size.

"We're flying, Jake! We're flying!"

"Hoo-rah! Yeah we are!" Jake yelled, happy as a child. Richardkimball turned around and smiled at them. She watched in awe as the forest far below flew past at a speed that she could never hope to match on her ikran. This was how the Sky People moved around on her world and after a few minutes, she settled in and as having as much fun with it as Jake was. She turned to Jake and he was smiling at her, clearing having fun as well and sensing she was enjoying herself.

"See, what did I tell you? This is a blast!" he laughed. She smiled back. "Hell yeah!" she yelled, feeling the wind rush through her hair.

In time, they came up through the mountains and she saw the arches and the Tree. Now it was time to get on to do what they needed to do here.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: In Which A Plan Is Revealed

They returned, a couple hours later or so, in a different frame of mind. It was time to find out what Jerryhandelman needed from them and what they could do to help him.

He was not in the room in the infirmary. They met him, Maxpatel, and Normspellman at the Main Control Center of Hell's Gate. It was still mostly destroyed, Neytiri noticed, as they came into the room. Maxpatel and the others were wearing their exopacks because this room was still open to the outside air. This was the room that was the center of the rebellion against the Sky People, a rebellion led by Maxpatel and some of the dreamwalkers when the battle against the Sky People turned in the favor of the Na'vi.

Eywa was the reason that battle had turned in their favor, Neytiri remembered. Eywa was also the reason she and Jake were here today. Jerryhandelman had something to tell them and she was ready to hear it. This was the first time she'd ever had the answer to a prayer to Eywa come back to her so strongly and clearly.

He was standing by a large, bowl-shaped round thing in the center of the room. There was a large table right near it, with a large bench on one side for her and Jake and human-sized seats on the other side for the Sky People to sit at.

"Ah, you're back. And what did Eywa say?" Jerryhandelman said, turning around.

"That we should listen to you and follow you, because you are wise and you are here to help us." Jake said, sounding a little tired himself. "So here we are. Now, what is this plan you and your people came up with and how can we help implement it?"

"Good. Let me start at the beginning, sort of."

He gesture to the table and motioned them to sit down. Everyone sat down and waited for him to take his seat.

"Alright. You all remember from our first meeting that I am with the Resistance, that I am one of the Sky People who is trying to defeat the RDA and everything they stand for."

Everyone nodded. "How big is this 'Resistance'?" Jake wanted to know.

"We'll talk about that some other time. Right now, you need to understand some things about us and how we operate. Our basic, explicit, and fundamental goal is the destruction and dismantling of the RDA. For years, many of us have grown tired of the RDA and what they're doing to our planet and our people. They're feeding us lies and hiding the truth of what they're really doing to us from everyone. They have spread their reach into just about every aspect of our lives, 'feeding' us processed algal-protein paste and calling it 'food' and telling us in their paternalistic, condescending way that they, the Great and Benevolent RDA, have only our best interests at heart.

"Well, some of us have had enough. We think the RDA and everything they stand for blows worse than dead donkey chunks and they need to be stopped. They're killing our planet and our world. If they're are not stopped, they will do the same here. So, some of us have decided to do something about it. We came up with a plan and here I am, to explain it to you."

Neytiri raised her hand, remembering the lessons she had gotten from Grace all those years ago. "What are 'dead donkey chunks'?" she asked him. Somehow she knew what he'd say, but she thought she should at least ask the question of him.

"Never mind, more sarcasm. Just forget it. Basically, all you really need to know is we both have a common enemy: the RDA. By yourselves, you can't stop them. By herself, Eywa cannot stop them. By ourselves, we can't stop them, but together, you, us, and Eywa can and will stop them once and for all so there will be no more threat from the bad Sky People."

She considered that for moment. "This would be very good. Tell us more."

"For the benefit of Neytiri, who probably doesn't understand most of this stuff, I will explain some things about myself. Max, Norm, I know you know this already, Jake, this is probably something you don't know much about but it will make sense to you. Neytiri, do you understand the difference between Max and me? That we both call ourselves 'doctors' but that he's a different kind of 'doctor' than I am?"

"Yes. He is a healer toktor and your are not." she answered him, proud of herself that she was able to make that distinction.

"Good. That is correct. I am not a healer doctor because I have what is called a 'doctorate' and it is the highest form of learning achievement we Sky People have. I have two of them and Norm here has only one. My two are in something called 'Physics' and something called 'Computer Science' but for the moment, you only need to know that the second one is the important one because it is what I will use to carry out this plan, mostly."

"I understand that, Jerryhandelman. But tell me, what is 'Computer Science' and why is it important to this plan?

"It's like this. All the machines we Sky People have and use every day have to be able to work and to work together. We do that with special machines called 'computers' and how those work is one of the things I study, gain new learning about, and teach other Sky People. We call this thing with all our machines and how they work 'technology' and computers are a very big part of that.

"When computers work together, we call that a 'network' and making computers work together in networks is one of the things I study. I have to know about all of this stuff and how works in order to do the kind of physics I do. The kind of research I do requires the most powerful computers on the planet, linked up and networked together. That's why I am a computer scientist as well as a physicist."

He got up and went over to the bowl-shaped thing she'd seen earlier. He touched something on the side and a strange, glowing blue-white orb appeared above it. She gasped, the sight was so unfamiliar it scared her for a moment.

"Don't be afraid. This is what we call a 'model' and this particular one is a model of your world, this world we're on right now. This is just a representation of it."

"Oh," she said, composing herself.

"Now, what we scientists have discovered about your world is this. Your deity Eywa is composed of all living things on this planet, connected together, forming a special kind of network, a 'neural network' we call it and those kind of networks are one of the things I study. I am something of an expert in that field, one of the top experts on our world, actually."

Maxpatel interjected. "Jerry, if I might?"

He nodded. "Sure. If you can add something to the discussion."

"Neytiri, we think Eywa is essentially a gigantic brain, covering this whole world. We think this because we know the Na'vi can access Eywa from basically anywhere on this world. You can hear your ancestors' voices, feel their memories, and become one with Eywa when you make Tsahaylu with her. We think that is because Eywa is composed of all the knowledge and experience of every living thing on this world, the Na'vi included. We're not trying to take anything away from Eywa or what you believe about her and we're certainly not trying to make her less mysterious to you. This is just our interpretation of what Eywa is to you and your world. That's all."

She nodded. "Yes, that makes sense. But what does that have to do with your plan, Jerryhandelman?"

"I am about to get to that, but Max's analogy of Eywa being a great big brain is a good one."

He did something with the bowl-shaped thing and the glowing orb that was her world shrank away to nothing.

"I'm going to take you on a little journey, Neytiri. A journey you'll find interesting, I think. We're going to go to the world I, Max, Norm, and Jake came from, the world we call "Earth" and the best part is, we won't even have to leave this room. I'll show it to you right here."

She nodded. He did something else with the bowl-thing and in a moment or two, there was another glowing, blue-white orb above the bowl.

"This is a model of our planet, Earth. It and other parts of our solar system are home to over twenty billion human beings, most of whom are living bleak, desperate lives, without hope, subsisting on what meager food they can afford, living out their mindless, pointless existence until they're dead and forgotten.

"But that isn't what I wanted to show you. What I want to show you, Neytiri, is this."

He did something with the bowl-thing and suddenly there was a skein of red lines all around and over the globe, and lines going off of it out into the space around it.

"This is what drives our civilization. This is a network of computers and other machines. This network controls our civilization. Without it, we die. If it collapses, if it goes away, we Sky People are dead. It is absolutely vital to our civilization that we have this network running at all times. If it is gone, we're gone. It is that simple. This network contains all the records of our people, the voices of our ancestors, their images, memories, and who they were. It is the collective memory of our civilization, the collective brain of our civilization We can and do access it from anywhere within the network. Now, does this sound familiar to you, like something you've heard of before?"

She pondered what he said for a moment. Then it hit her. "It is your Great Mother, the Sky People's Eywa!" she exclaimed, pointing at the globe.

"Well, it's a mother of a network, I'll give you that," he said, "but that's correct. This is essentially our version of Eywa, the only difference is we control it, not the other way around. Now, you need to understand that I know everything about this network because I am one of the Sky People who helped build it and maintain it and I train other Sky People to maintain it. I know how it works, I know how it doesn't work, and more importantly, I know how to make it not work because one of the other things I study is something called 'computer security' which is basically making sure other Sky People can't take over these machines and make them do things you don't want. What that means is this: I know how to take control of computers, how to isolate them so they can't network with other computers, how to make them do what I want and not what the person who maintains them wants. I have also written a couple textbooks on computer security and networking."

He looked at Jake, then Neytiri, then pointed off in the direction of Earth. "The simplest way to understand what I am saying is this: all their machines, their technology, it's all connected and it is all run on and by computers these days. I know how to make their machines, their computers not work."

The room was silent for a moment. "So, what does that have to do with Eywa?" Jake asked, getting curious as he listened to Jerryhandelman's explanation.

"Well, when I 'passed through the Eye of Eywa' yesterday and returned, basically what I did was have Eywa make a copy of me, and then kick me back out into the world."

"Right," Jake said, "and that means what, exactly?"

"It's real simple, Jake. What I know about computers, about our computer network, how it works, how it runs, and most importantly, how to take control of it, Eywa now knows. Everything I know, she now knows."

"And that means what, exactly? You've turned Eywa into a hacker or something?" her mate wanted to know.

Jerryhandelman looked at Jake askance for a second or two. "Well actually yes, Jake. In a manner of speaking, that's one of the things I did when I let her copy me yesterday. I was one of the best hackers around back in the day. In fact, I ran into more than a little trouble with the law when I was a lot younger and a lot more full of myself, back in my serious hacker phase. I still am a hacker, by the way, it is just that now I am one of the people who makes and keeps systems secure so people like my younger self can't break in. You have to know how hackers think and what they do in order to defeat them. It takes one to know one, Jake. I used to break into all kinds of classified systems, computers, networks, you name it I either broke into it or at least tried. There's not a system around I couldn't either hack into directly or, if I can't break into it, isolate it if I have enough hardware at my disposal. I am one of the best, Jake, and that is no bullshit."

He went back to his seat at the table. "Now, let me explain our plan."

"The beginnings of the plan were several years ago, when I had a discussion with a colleague of mine who is also with the Resistance. The exact nature of our conversation isn't important, but what is important is that it gave me the seed for this idea.

"Fast forward to two months ago. Jake here kicks the RDA off this planet. So, for the moment they are gone." He pointed, out the window. "But the threat still remains. It's over there, on Earth, from the RDA and it will not go away until they are dealt with.

"So, after we got your video logs and your report, I sat down one evening and had an idea. The idea was in the form of a question.

He looked at Neytiri. "If I were Eywa, how would I deal with that threat over there, from the bad Sky People? There are three things I could do. One, I could hope the bad Sky People go away and don't ever come back here to this world. That won't happen. I have something they want and they have proven they will hurt me and my children the Na'vi to get it. So that's not an option. Two, I could have my children the Na'vi try to talk to them, maybe negotiate with them to see if we can come up with a solution that will make everyone happy. That's also not an option because they have shown that they aren't interested in talking. They're only interested in taking."

"Yes, that one worked out really well the first time," Jake said, turning to Neytiri, "and that's sarcasm, in case you wanted to know."

"So that leaves me with Option Three: I know there are good Sky People here, like Grace, Jake, Max, Norm, and others. Therefore there must be good Sky People on Earth. What if I could help them out so they can deal with the bad Sky People for me and my children the Na'vi and take care of the threat once and for all? Now wouldn't that be a good thing, Neytiri?"

She looked at him for a moment. "Yes, that would be good, but how do you do that?"

"Real simple. I am the guy who figured out the way for the avatar drivers to communicate with their avatars." He pointed to the globe. "Now, remember that everything I know about computers and computer networks and hacking, breaking in to secure systems, all that, so too Eywa now knows. Put those two facts together and what do you get?"

Everyone was silent for a long moment. Normspellman looked at the glowing orb, then at Jerryhandelman, then back to the orb. His expression changed.

"Dude," he said after another long moment. "You wouldn't!"

Jerryhandelman smiled at him. "Yes I would and yes I did. It would be the ultimate denial-of-service attack, now wouldn't it?"

Normspellman was smiling. "Dude, that is so sick! Wish I'd thought of it!"

"Could you two talk English please," Jake muttered, "what are you talking about?"

Jerryhandelman sighed. "It's real, real simple, Jake. I intend to turn Eywa into an avatar driver so she can take control of our network back home, you know, the one I just told you and your wife is absolutely essential to our civilization, without which our civilization comes crashing down around us, without which we die?" He pointed at the globe, "You know, that network?"

"Oh," Jake said, considering that for a moment. "you can do this?"

"Yes." Jerryhandelman said, starting to sound like he was talking to an idiot, which annoyed Neytiri, but she pushed that aside, a growing sense of excitement beginning to rise within her.

"Jerryhandelman, you are telling me you can defeat the bad Sky People with this?"

"Yes, in a manner of speaking. It's really quite simple. Once Eywa takes control of the network, then the bad Sky People can't come here and hurt you, your people, or this world ever again. We good Sky People will take care of that for you, once we're in a position to do that and that will be when Eywa grabs control of our network."

He looked at both of them. "Now do you understand why I had to come here and why I was so secretive when I got here?"

Jake was smiling. "Yeah, it makes sense now."

Jerryhandelman looked at Neytiri. "So, the plan is really, really simple in its basic form. All I need to do is attach some of my machines to the Tree of Souls, get the signal from there to my lab on Earth, and essentially let her take over. Do you want me to do this for you?"

"Yes," she said, her excitement starting to bubble up. "You will do this for us?"

"Absolutely. Now the finer details of the plan are still to be worked out. Where you and Jake come in to this is in several places, but the biggest one is this: both of you will be going to Earth so when the plan comes together, you will be ready and waiting for the next step."

"Now why would I want to go back to Earth when they have a bounty on my head?" Jake asked, sounding annoyed.

"Because you, your wife, and the Olo'eyktans and Tsahiks of whatever number of clans you think is representative of the Na'vi people, I don't know, it could be the clans you brought together for the battle against Quaritch for all I care, will sit down and negotiate a peace treaty between the Na'vi and the leaders of the major nations of Earth, so that there will be no more wars, no more fighting, and no more killing between our two peoples. Now how does that sound to the both of you?"

Neytiri looked at Jake, then at Jerryhandelman. "I would like that very much." she said, "what do you need from us to make this happen?"

"My job is to put you in a position of strength so that you can sit down and negotiate with the Sky People. What I need from you is this: permission to let me and maybe a few other Sky People to go to the Tree of Souls with our machinery and a promise that you'll go talk to the Olo'eyktans and tsahiks of the various other clans, tell them the basics of this plan, and get them ready to be here on short notice so they can come with you to Earth when the time comes. Can you do that?"

Neytiri and Jake looked at each other, then Jake answered. "Sure. We can do that. The only thing is, I was a Marine, not a diplomat. I don't know much about negotiations and that political type stuff. That's not my strong point."

"No problem," Jerryhandelman said. "I can and will help you out in any way I can. Whether you like it or not, you're a politician now, Jake. You're a leader of the Na'vi and a good leader always has to have good people behind him, helping him out, advising him. Which is what I am more than willing to do to help you."

Neytiri was curious about something. "Jerryhandelman, why do you need the Tsahiks to go to Earth. Why not just the Olo'eyktans?"

He considered that for a moment. "That's a good question. I need the Olo'eyktans obviously because they're in charge of everyday life with the clans, including dealing with other clans, and now with something we call 'foreign relations' but there's a very good reason to have the Tsahiks with their mates the Olo'eyktans. That reason is this: the whole point of negotiating this peace treaty is so the Sky People will leave you alone. If Eywa takes control of their network, then to get it back, they have to deal with Eywa, correct?"

"Yes, exactly." She said.

"And who among Na'vi society are the one charged with the task of interpreting the will of Eywa?" he asked, in a tone similar to the way Grace used to ask them questions at her school.

"The Tshahiks, of course!"

"So," he concluded, "if the Sky People want to have their network back and Eywa is holding it, who do they need to talk to to find out what Eywa wants?"

"The Tsahiks, again!" she said, now understanding where he was coming from.

"Therefore, the Tsahiks have to be part of this peace delegation, don't you agree?"

"Yes, absolutely." she said, looking at Jake for a moment.

Jerryhandelman clapped his hands together. "So, we have a deal?"

"Yes, we will help you." Neytiri said, her earlier excitement returning.

"Good. Norm, Max, I will need your help in the next week or so as we get set up and Norm, I will need you back on Earth for the actual execution of the plan." He got up from the table.

"It's time to get this party started!" he said.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: In Which We Learn Things About the Anti-RDA Resistance

Jerryhandelman returned a few days later. Jake and Neytiri had been back to their new Hometree in the meantime and Neytiri had gone to the Ikran rookery and had a new Ikran. This one would never replace Seze in her heart, but he was a strong Ikran. She named him Eytukan, after her father. He was a good Ikran and she knew when she tamed him that Eywa had chosen a good Ikran for her, an Ikran that would serve her for many years to come.

And, it would be more convenient for both her and Jake because now they could both get around faster, and getting around to the various clans would be necessary if this plan Jerryhandelman and the other Sky People had come up with was going to work.

Mo'at was keeping things going at their new home, but Neytiri knew the clan needed Jake there more than he'd been recently. Everyone understood why Jake and Neytiri had been at their new Hometree sporadically over the past week or so, but still, she longed in her heart to be at home, settling in with Jake, and making a new life together.

_Another week or two and it will be all done_, she thought to herself as she and Jake flew over to Hell's Gate to meet with Jerryhandelman to discuss more things about the plan and to get things set up at the Tree of Souls.

He was waiting for them in a big room inside the Hell's Gate complex. She and Jake had become accustomed to breathing the air inside the Sky People building. The air was a little bit thinner than what she was accustomed to and Maxpatel had explained that was because of something called "density" and that was why she and Jake felt a little lightheaded when they were inside the building.

This room was different from the other rooms she had seen before in that it was clearly designed for meetings. There was a large, white space on one wall and various machines on another. The space was for drawing and writing the Sky People's script and the machines were computers, Maxpatel had told her when they came into the room.

There was a table, with a big bench for her and Jake to sit on and human-sized chairs for Jerryhandelman, Normspellman, and Maxpatel.

Jerryhandelman seemed much more haggard and tired-looking than the last time she'd seen him. She was concerned for him. Was he getting enough sleep?

"Jerryhandelman, how are you feeling?" she asked him.

"Tired." he responded. "I have gotten about three hours of sleep in the past 36 hours. I've had a rough time the past few days, but everything is settled down, at least for now."

He looked around the room. "So, you guys want an update on what's going on?"

Everyone nodded, "And I'd like to hear some more about the Resistance, if you have time." Jake said. Jerryhandelman nodded.

"Things are starting to get a bit weird back home," he muttered, "that's why I am so tired. The RDA is still trying to spin their loss here as being due to those awful, ungrateful Na'vi savages kicking 'us' off this world. They're trying to get everyone to think that those evil, greedy Na'vi savages don't want 'us' to have 'our' Unobtanium and what needs to happen is the armed forces need to come out here in much greater force and retake the planet so 'we' can have 'our' Unobtainium back. It's sickening, their propaganda and their bullshit, but the thing that scares me most is it might work. I don't know."

He shrugged and slumped back in his chair. The room was silent for a moment.

"Well, then it sounds like we need to get things rolling, both here and there." Jake said.

"Yep. Now, for the update," Jerryhandelman continued, "me and my colleagues have worked out all the bugs with the transport system between here and my lab back on Earth. There were a few minor issues that came up when I set up the machine here, and a couple with the one in my lab, but they are worked out. I won't be eating into my lab's antimatter budget too much, or our deuterium supply because we have access to the refined Unobtainium here. Bottom line, it works, for relatively small, compact amounts of mass, like a human or Na'vi or a small amount of machinery, computers, Unobtainium, or whatever else. Basically anything that can fit in a chamber 1.5 meters wide, 1.5 meters deep, and four meters high."

"What is 'antimatter' Jerryhandelman?" Neytiri asked.

"Uh, it's a special kind of fuel, sort of like how you have firewood at your Hometree, well I have a certain amount of it at my lab back home. I used up a bunch getting here the first time, but once we got some refined Unobtainium back to my lab, I can use less, and I can use something called deuterium a lot easier too, which there is still a fair amount here. But, we will still be using a goodly amount of energy moving people and stuff back and forth between Earth and Pandora."

Maxpatel asked him how much and Jerryhandelman mumbled something about "we'll not have to worry about that for a while" almost like he'd not really heard Maxpatel's question. He seemed distracted, like his mind was wandering.

"Perhaps you'd like to rest," Neytiri suggested. He waved his hand to the side. "I'm fine, for now." She noted in passing that his hand was almost completely healed up. Fortunately she'd not bitten him really hard.

He stopped for a moment, lost in his thoughts, then continued.

"Jake," he said, looking at her mate for a moment, "you wanted to know a little more about the Resistance? How we're organized, how big we are, that sort of thing?"

Her mate nodded, "At least as much as you can comfortably tell us."

"I won't be able to tell you all that much because a lot of this is based on a need-to-know basis and believe me, you do NOT need to know about some of this."

"Yeah, I remember that from the Corps," Jake muttered, "'need-to-know' was just another way of treating us grunts like mushrooms, right? I'm just a lowly corporal, right? And I don't have the brains to understand what's going on, right?" he said with a petulant tone. He was getting annoyed again and Neytiri didn't like that one bit.

"No, Jake. It's not like that at all. You're not just a corporal, you're now an officer, whether you want to be one or not. You're a leader. But a lot of this stuff you wouldn't understand even if I laid it all out for you. You've got brains, Jake, but most of this plan and the people involved with its planning and execution are both at a level way, way above what you're accustomed to. I'm not trying to blow smoke up your ass or treat you like a dumb grunt. I'm trying to lead a revolution back home, a revolution whose success depends upon a number of variables, some of which are under my control, others aren't.

"I am also trying to be a college professor, a college professor who just happens to have a number of high-level contacts within the RDA and the US government, a college professor who also happens to have gotten a number of very large contracts over the years to design and build cutting-edge weapons systems, computers, command-and-control systems, encryption schemes, and various other toys for the RDA and the US government, a college professor who also happens to be a very important person within the Resistance. In short, I am trying to lead three lives, and sooner or later, those lives will collide with each other if I'm not careful, which is why I am a little tired right now. So spare me the whining about how you want to be in the loop. I don't have the time for that!"

Everyone was silent for a few moments after his outburst.

Jake held up his hands, in a gesture Neytiri had come to understand meant "Relax" to the Sky People, especially when he then said, "Take it easy, Jerry, all I want to know is a little more about this 'Resistance' you're a part of so I can know who I am working with here. Why is it I've never heard about you guys?"

"We're not exactly in the Yellow Pages, if that's what you're asking me." Jerryhandelman muttered. "We sort of have to keep a low profile, for reasons which should be pretty obvious."

Jake pondered that for a few seconds while Neytiri tried to figure out what these "Yellow Pages" were before he answered.

"Yes, it would be fairly obvious that you would not want to attract the attention of the RDA, that I can figure out." Jake said, "Just tell us all a little more about the Resistance, whatever you're comfortable with. You don't have to get into great detail, just tell us what you can. Just enough to keep us in the loop."

"Fine," said Jerryhandelman, "I'll tell you all what I can. For starters, Grace Augustine was one of our sympathizers and supporters, in a way she was one of us."

That stunned everyone in the room, most especially Normspellman and Maxpatel.

"Grace was part of your group?" they both asked Jerryhandelman.

"Yes, in a manner of speaking. She was never formally part of the Resistance, but she shared our goals. She was what we called a 'double agent' because she was on the inside. She fed us a lot of good intel over the years about the RDA, their internal structure, what they were really doing here, and a bunch of other stuff. She was a good person and we'll miss her. I miss her. She was also the main reason I got the contract to figure out a way for the avatar drivers to communicate with their Avatars. She steered that contract my way, and gave as much information as she could about what was going on here, on Pandora. She got word back to us whenever she could."

Maxpatel and Normspellman were silent after that, each one mulling over what Jerryhandelman had just said.

Jake finally spoke after a few moments. "I just want to know that if Grace was involved with your group, does that mean she knew about the Resistance or was she a cut-out person or was she someone who just fed you information and intel?"

"Well, it's kind of hard to explain without going into a lot of stuff that you don't need to know. Let's just say that Grace Augustine was an inspiration to a lot of us because of what she did here. The main reason I knew about the Resistance was because she told me about it. That was the reason I didn't want to come out here to be an avatar driver. I knew I'd be of better use back on Earth, not running around the jungle playing Boy Scout with the Na'vi."

He looked at Neytiri, "Much as I like you and your people and consider the Na'vi to be better than the human race in many ways, I had no interest in coming out here. You guys don't have anything that would have interested me on a professional level. The only reason Grace wanted me to come out here was to learn your songs."

Neytiri didn't know what to make of that. Didn't the Sky People understand by now that the Na'vi believed that all songs and all music came from Eywa? "Are you telling me Grace wanted you to study our songs?" she asked him, trying not to show the offense she felt at this insult, trying to remember that he was a Sky Person, after all, and couldn't always See something in the way the Great Mother intended for it to be Seen. He was a scientist, like Grace, and the Sky People sometimes just could not get their minds around the idea that just because you could study something meant that you should study it. Some things simply just were, and by studying them you diminish them.

"Well, it is like this. I have what the Sky People call 'perfect pitch' along with something we call 'photographic memory' and both of those are just a fancy way of saying I can hear a song once, just once, and repeat it note-for-note."

He looked at Normspellman, then Maxpatel. "I'll bet neither of you knew I am an accomplished musician? That I have written a few symphonies, among other things?"

Both of them shook their heads in the way Neytiri had come to understand meant "No" to the Sky People.

"I know you play guitar pretty well, but is that all?" Normspellman asked him.

"I also play piano. One of my three undergraduate degrees is in Music, in case you didn't know. I am an accomplished guitar and piano player and I know over 5,000 songs. I'm almost like a human tape recorder, which is what Grace was interested in and why she wanted me to come out here."

Neytiri held her anger in check, but knew she had to explain this to Jerryhandelman. "You may think our songs are something to be studied and learned, but you must understand, Jerryhandelman, we think of our music and our songs a gift from the Great Mother, not something that you Sky People should study. They are our songs, not yours!" she finished, with a little flourish.

"That's just fine with me," he muttered, "as I say, I had no desire to come out here and become an avatar driver just to sit around listening to your songs so I could perform them for Grace and the scientists here. The idea was simply too boring for me and I told Grace as much, which is when she came up with the idea of studying your world's biological network, because it was something related to what I study with computers. But still, I wasn't interested, which is when I recruited Jake's brother Tom to come out here."

"And the rest is history." Jake finished. "So, you know over 5,000 songs? Do you take requests, like Top Forty hits, that sort of thing?"

Jerryhandelman looked at him oddly for a moment or two, "Not right now, but if I had a little more time and I had my guitar with me, sure. Yes, I do in fact know more than 5,000 songs by heart, as the saying goes, all of which are now part of Eywa because she downloaded me into her. What she will make of the collected works of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Ozzy Osbourne, Megadeath, Metallica, Righteous Indignation, Robert Plant, Queensryche, Ronnie James Dio, The Beatles, Johnny Toro and the Death's Head Alliance, The Arc Light Players, Cold Onion Soup, Worm Dung, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Cryptomania, and various other rock, metal, death metal, and hard rock groups from the past 200 years, I have no idea."

Jake smiled, "Yeah, you're right. Eywa won't know what to make of all that."

Neytiri was still a little annoyed at Jerryhandelman, but she decided it would be best to set that aside, at least for the moment.

Jake got back to practical matters. "You said there might be a war or uprising or something back on Earth? What's up with that?"

Jerryhandelman sighed heavily. "Yes, that is the main reason why I say things are getting weird back home. I am very, very afraid that things might get out of control, which is why I want to put a stop to all this madness. There are a lot of us who will not go along to get along anymore. If the RDA pushes us, we'll push back. My greatest fear is that there aren't enough of us to make a difference and if we lose, which I think we could very well do, then nothing will stop the RDA from dragging the human race down, and you along with it."

The room was silent again. Neytiri was beginning to feel fear again.

"How many of you are there, Jerryhandelman? Are all of you warriors?"

He looked at her for a moment, then asked a question of Maxpatel about some Sky People machine in the corner of the room. Getting an affirmative answer, he got up, walked over to it, and picked it up.

"Let me show you something on this datawindow." He did some things with the object, a flat, clear rectangular thing, and after a moment or two, a picture appeared on it.

"Neytiri, here's what you're up against." He showed her the picture. It was a picture of a Sky People building, a tall building, evidently, standing amongst a bunch of other tall buildings, in one of the Sky People's living places.

"This is a picture of one of our tall buildings. You know what a 'city' is?"

She told him Grace had explained that to her.

"This building is in a city called "Chicago" and it's the city where I am from. This building is about ten times or so taller than your old Hometree. This building is so tall, if it were standing in the valley over there where the Thundering Mountains are, where your Ikran nest, the tops of those mountains would only come up to about here," he pointed to a spot about two-thirds of the way up, "and that isn't all. The base of this building is so big, you could have put five Hometrees inside it and have plenty of room to spare. And this building isn't even the tallest building we Sky People have. And this big tall thing on top of it? That's what we call an 'antenna' and it alone is about twice as tall than your old Hometree was. I know all of this about this building because me and a couple other Sky People jumped off the top of this antenna a couple years ago."

He pointed at the building again, "There are more Sky People living and working in this one building than there are Na'vi on this particular continent. There are more Sky People in this one city than there are Na'vi on this world."

His last statement chilled her to the depths of her soul. "You really are the Sky People, if you live in such buildings that climb into the sky." she said at last, trying to imagine a building holding so many of the Sky People.

"Yes, you could look at it that way. The point I am trying to make is that if the Sky People decide to come here in force, you won't be able to stop them. This is an enemy neither you, your people, or Eywa have ever faced before. If you try to fight them in the way you usually fight your wars, you will lose. The only way to fight them is for Sky People like me to fight them for you."

"And this fight you will fight without your guns, with no weapons at all? She asked him, still trying to get her mind around the idea that you could fight a war without weapons.

"Absolutely. We can fight them and we will fight them, but you see, our weapons won't be what you or Jake are used to. We will use our computers against them, and with Eywa on our side, we will defeat them. And, we intend to use the combined mass of all the rest of the Sky People to help us. Imagine, if you will, all those Sky People in that building I just showed you, or in that city, or all over our world, turning against the people who built this place? Do you think the murderers who built this place would stand a chance against the rest of the Sky People?"

"No, they wouldn't. There would be too many Sky People against them."

"Exactly. And that is what we intend to do. It is not just about Eywa taking control of our computer network, it's a battle for the soul of our race and that is a battle we could lose, if we're not careful. We don't want to fight it too soon. We want to fight it on our terms and at a time when we're ready to fight."

She pondered that for a moment. Jake spoke up, "So, you're going to turn the Sky People on Earth against the RDA? How do you do that?"

"That's easy. With the truth. As soon as Eywa has taken control of our network, we will show the rest of the Sky People what the RDA has done here, we will show them the destruction of Hometree, we will show them the RDA's attack against the Tree of Souls, in short, we will show them the truth. Once the truth is put before them, the Sky People will no longer abide by what the RDA has done here, and the people who built this place will face our justice for what they did here."

He looked at Neytiri again. "It is very, very important to me and the other people who are helping me that you understand what I am about to say to you. The people who built this place broke the Sky People's laws and they must face the Sky People's justice for what they did here, to you, to Hometree, and to the Na'vi. I and the people with me will not rest until they have answered for their crimes. Do you understand what I am telling you?"

She was silent for a long moment, finally beginning to See something else about this man, Jerryhandelman. He was a fighter, a true warrior, even if he didn't fight in a way she could understand.

She gazed at him, then at Jake, "Yes, I understand what you are saying. But, can you tell me why this is important to you. Why do you care about what they did here? Why does it matter so much to you and the people who are helping you?"

"Because what they did here is just a taste of what's to come if they aren't stopped once and for all. What you saw here, what you experienced here in the battle against the Sky People is nothing compared to what we Sky People are capable of doing to you and your people if the worst side of our nature is allowed to come anywhere near your world. Believe me, Neytiri, we are capable of worse, much, much worse and I am doing everything within my power to make sure that doesn't happen. You have my word, I am doing everything I possibly can to make sure that the bad Sky People will never ever again come anywhere near your world.

"The way the Sky People fight wars is very, very horrible, and I fear for you and your people if that is allowed to happen here. I will stop them, even if it kills me. This I swear to you and Jake. They will not be allowed to harm you or your people ever again, not as long as I have something to say about it, which I most certainly do. It must be shown that the people who built this place are not above our laws. That will happen when they answer for their crimes against you and your people."

She looked at him again, in a new light. This was a man who was not to be trifled with. She remembered the feeling of absolute terror in her soul when Seze had died and she was watching the Sky People advance with their guns and flamethrowers. This man intended to make them answer for what they did. That was something she very definitely liked about him. "And you will do this?"

"Absolutely. I will make them pay for what they did here and I will make them pay in ways you can't even begin to imagine."

"So, you're thinking war crimes trials? Or something else?" Jake asked him.

"Maybe. We will see. Whatever the case, we'll make them answer for what they did here."

Neytiri was about to ask what a "war crimes trial" was when Maxpatel turned to Jerryhandelman and asked him a strange question.

"Jerry, how did Grace 'get word' back to you and your group?"

Jerryhandelman paused for a few moments, then gathered his thoughts.

"I suppose it doesn't matter any more now that the RDA is gone, for the moment, but did you know we have our own supraluminal communications link here?"

Maxpatel looked stunned. "So you're telling me you had your own comm channel back to Earth? How the hell did you keep that a secret all these years? How did you get it here?"

"That's easy enough," Jerryhandelman said, "we hid it in various small pieces and parts smuggled out here over the past few years. Only a very small number of people here knew about it. Before you ask, yes, Grace wasn't the only one out here who was working with us. Our people assembled the comm link at this end and once it was set up, we kept it going right up through to the very end, right before everyone else got kicked off this world."

Maxpatel looked at Jake, then back to Jerryhandelman, "So where is this comm link located?"

"It's in one of the outbuildings and it doesn't look anything like what you would think a McKinney transmitter looks like, because it's not based on the McKinney design but rather a major improvement of that design I came up with a while back, based on my theories and research. It's rather more efficient, much more secure, and has a much higher bitrate than what the RDA was using. It would revolutionize communication if we could release the technology to the general public, but we won't do that so long as the RDA is in the way. Basically, we knew what was going on out here because of that comm link. We used it for data transmission, mostly. It didn't use quite as much energy that way. We could and occasionally did use it for voice and video transmission, but doing so used a lot more energy, so much so that we only used it that way very, very rarely, only in emergencies and when we had no other choice, that sort of thing. Otherwise, someone higher up would have noticed the spike in energy use every time the comm link was used that way."

"How much is a 'much higher' bitrate?" Normspellman asked.

"Something around five orders of magnitude faster than the old McKinney set-up the RDA had been using out here. It's fast enough that Jake could have sent all his video logs and his report in a matter of about an half an hour instead of the eight hours or so it took him to send his report via the standard comm link back to Earth."

"Damn, that's fast!" Maxpatel said, sounding excited. "How many people were with you group out here?" Maxpatel wanted to know.

Jerryhandelman paused for a moment. "Enough to keep us informed on what was going on. That's all I can say for now, because all of them left with the other humans when you guys kicked them off this world. It would have looked strange if Jimmy the Truck Driver or Jane the Computer Tech asked to stick around after the humans had been defeated. You and Jake decided who got to stay and we decided it would be best if our people left with the other humans. Fewer questions asked that way.

"Grace and a couple of our other people kept us apprised of what was going on out here. She kept us up to date with regular reports and fed us lots of good info about how things were going here. And in return, we kept her up to date with what was going on back on Earth and what we were doing. We also did debriefings of personnel returning from Pandora once they got to Earth, the ones that survived in one piece, more or less."

"What is 'debriefing' if I may ask you, Jerryhandelman?" Neytiri asked him.

"It's basically just sitting them down and asking them a bunch of questions about their time here, what happened to them, what they did, what they saw, and anything else that might be of interest to us or our movement."

"Oh," she answered, "this you did with all the Sky People who returned to your world?"

"Only the ones who managed to survive their stay here without going insane, yes. Our people would find them and then talk to them under what we call "guises" which are basically pretending to be someone else, like a healer or someone who writes for a living. That way, they wouldn't be too suspicious of the person talking to them."

His expression went bleak for a moment or two. "We should never have come here. This isn't our world. We don't belong here. The stories I got back from our people who talked to those who survived their time here horrify me. Most people who went back to Earth ended up with serious health problems, or they went insane eventually, or they killed themselves or become a burden to their families. Very, very few people survive unscathed after a trip here. We should not be here."

He turned to Normspellman and Maxpatel. "And sooner or later, you guys, the humans still here, will come to realize that this base is at the end of a very long supply chain and requires a certain minimum number of trained, qualified humans to operate it and keep it going. There are not enough people here to maintain it or the systems here. What will you do when critical system start breaking down? What about when you start running out of fuel for the power plant? In all probability, all of you will be dead in a few years, at best. I hope you don't plan on getting too close with Neytiri or the other Na'vi, because when you do die, they'll lose the last humans sympathetic to them here. This is a hostile place for us, and eventually you'll realize that we should not be here. We never should have come here in the first place."

Max looked at him. "Well yes, but we did allow a few of the technicians to stay behind and we're using a lot less power and energy than this place did with a full complement of staff. We'll be just fine, thanks for asking, Jerry." he muttered, in a petulant tone of voice.

Jerryhandelman glared at Maxpatel for a moment. "Mark my words, Max. You do not have enough people here to keep this place running indefinitely. Sooner or later, probably sooner, this place is going to start falling apart and there will not be a damn thing you can do to stop it."

He turned and looked at her. "Neytiri, the only thing the Sky People have ever brought to you and your people is nothing but pain and hurt. If there was a way I could turn back time and make it so we had never come here, I would have done it, but I can't. The only thing I can do is try and make it right by you and your people. I wish we'd never come here in the first place. We don't belong here."

He seemed to have become a much older man in the time he had been talking to them today. He had just uttered an absolute truth, one that she wished the people who had built Hell's Gate had understood before they ever set foot on this world.

Jerryhandelman looked at Jake and the rest for a few moments, then continued.

"What we have managed to do is compile a great deal of information about this place and the people who ran it until you defeated them, Jake. We have tried to disseminate that information as best we can to everyone back home, but it is a hard, hard task. The RDA has extended their tentacles into almost every aspect of our lives, such that we can only do our real organizing off the net and off the grid in some cases. But, we know the truth about the people who ran this place."

"Did you keep files on all of us?" Maxpatel asked him, a sharp tone to his voice.

"If you're asking if we spied on you, the answer is "No" because we didn't need to. The only thing we were really after out here was information about the higher-ups here, Selfridge, Quaritch, and a few others. You were not on that list, Max, because Grace told us you were above reproach. So, we left you alone and didn't even look at you once. We've known each other for what, fifteen years? Trust me Max, you were not one of our targets."

Maxpatel mulled over that for a moment. "But why didn't Grace ever tell me about any of this? We documented everything we could about all the crap the RDA was doing to the Na'vi, but I never realized it was for your group."

"Because the fewer people in the loop, the better, Max. Grace was the only person in this group who needed to know about our hidden comm link. If you knew the extent of what she was up to and her involvement, your life could have been in danger. The only one who was risking her neck was Grace and that is the way we wanted it. If you were not aware of the comm link and what she was using it for, you couldn't spill your guts about it if you were ever caught."

"Oh," Maxpatel said after a second or two. "that makes sense."

"Did you tell my brother about the Resistance?" Jake asked him.

"Not really. I had intended to tell him about the Resistance and bring him into the loop right before he left, but I never had that chance. Once he got out here, Grace would have brought him totally up to speed on what was really going on out here and brought him onboard with us. I did give him a heads-up before he was to come out here about what to expect, who was good people, who to watch out for, and stuff like that. I didn't tell him about the Resistance then because I wanted to bring him in to the loop slowly, on my terms. I never had a chance to talk to him about it once his training got going and like I say, the one time I did talk to him was basically just a "you need to know this stuff" talk between me and him a couple weeks before he was to leave. He was all focused on getting his stuff together for the trip out, but he did listen to me. Your brother was a good listener, Jake. That is one of the biggest things I miss about him. We used to shoot the breeze for hours sometimes."

"What did you tell him about Selfridge and the others?" Jake continued. Neytiri was curious too, she wanted to know more about her mate's dead brother.

"Not a whole lot I could tell him in great detail, basically just watch out around either of them and don't let your guard down around either of them."

"What did you have on Quaritch?" Normspellman asked him.

"Ah yes, the late and unlamented Col. Miles Quaritch, or as we used to call him, Col. Coffeecup because he used to drink his morning coffee while blowing up Ibo villages in Nigeria. We had quite a file on that bastard."

He looked at Jake for a moment. "Did he tell you about his adventures in Nigeria?"

Jake looked confused for a second or two. "Not really, just that he did three tours there before coming out here."

"Yes, three tours in Nigeria. I'll bet you never asked him what he was doing there, did you?"

Jake shrugged. "Nope. I never asked. I figured it was none of my business."

Jerryhandelman looked at Neytiri for a moment.

"He did the exact same thing to a bunch of Sky People back on our world that he did here, to you and your clan. He killed many, many Sky People for the RDA back home." He then turned to Jake, "Did he say something to you about 'not wanting to rotate home' to get his scars fixed, did he?"

"As a matter of fact, yes he did, the first time he and I had a talk. I think I mentioned that in my report. Is that important?"

"Yes it is and yes you did mention it in your report. He gave that same little 'I am Mr. Tough Guy' spiel to a couple of our people who we managed to get infiltrated into SecOps. Quaritch never told you the real reason he didn't want to go home, did he?"

Jake considered that for a long moment. "Nope and I didn't want to pursue the issue either."

"He didn't want to go home because he knew he'd be arrested for war crimes the moment he got off the shuttle, war crimes he committed on Earth. Out here, he was reasonably safe from the long arm of the law, but if he'd ever gone home, he'd have been dead meat and he knew it. Up until the point your wife put two arrows in his chest, he probably thought he was as safe as he'd ever be."

Jerryhandelman turned to Neytiri. "He killed many, many Sky People in a place called Nigeria back on Earth. We call that a 'war crime' among the Sky People and a lot of us back home wanted him to face justice for what he did there. When you killed him, you forever put him beyond the reach of the Sky People's justice."

"Yes, but he was about to kill my Jake!" Neytiri answered, feeling resentful that Jerryhandelman didn't seem to understand what had been at stake when she killed Quaritch.

"Oh yes, I understand that, I most certainly do, but even though he was about to kill your husband, a lot of us back on Earth wanted to see him face our justice."

"Don't worry about that, Jerry." Jake said, "Quaritch got what he deserved."

"That's true. It's just a little frustrating that Col. Coffeecup won't get to face our justice." Jerryhandelman muttered.

"Well," Jake answered, "maybe we can make the people who sent him here face justice for what he and they did here."

"That's the idea, Jake. That's the idea." Jerryhandelman said slowly, as though he were thinking of something else.

Everyone was silent for a moment. Normspellman spoke after a few moments. "Jerry, can you tell us much about the Resistance works back on Earth? I am curious about how you guys are organized and how you operate. You said you're like the French Resistance in WWII, but what does that mean exactly? Civil disobedience? Sabotage? Resistance fighters in 'cells' that work underground? Exactly what kind of organization do you guys have?"

Jerryhandelman was silent for a few more moments, considering his thoughts but before he could continue, Neytiri had to know something.

"Jerryhandelman. What is 'World War Two'?"

"Uh, it was a really, really bad war the Sky People fought amongst ourselves a couple hundred of our years ago and yes, there was also a World War One before that but we have not had wars like that in a long, long time. Now we have little wars all over, like the little adventure down in a place called Venezuela where your husband lost the use of his legs, 'defending freedom' or some other claptrap. Am I correct, Jake? How long were you down there before you figured out the RDA was really running things?

Her mate grunted noncommittally. "Yeah, I figured out pretty quick that the real reasons we were down there had nothing to do with 'freedom' or anything like that and yes, what I saw and did there still haunts my dreams, in case you're curious." he finished, with a petulant tone.

Neytiri considered Jerryhandelman's explanation for a few seconds, trying to get her mind around the idea of a war that spanned the whole world of the Sky People, two such wars, if what Jerryhandelman had just said was the truth.

"Were these wars a time a great sorrow for the Sky People?" She asked him.

"Uh, yeah, it was a very, very bad time, especially the Second World War. A lot of Sky People died fighting in both World Wars, but especially the second one. Why do you ask?"

"I am curious about the world you, Jake, Normspellman, Maxpatel, and the other Sky People came from, that is why I ask you."

"Getting back to my question …" Normspellman prompted.

"Uh, yeah. I might as well tell all of you this much. For starters, there really isn't a single, monolithic entity called 'The Resistance' of which I am a part. In reality, there are a bunch of loosely affiliated groups and people under the banner 'The Resistance' and the group I am with is just one. But we're one of the top tier groups."

"So there is a hierarchy of groups, then? Normspellman asked him.

"Yes, more or less." Jerryhandelman turned to Neytiri. "This may not mean very much to you, but there are a lot of Sky People who look to this world and to the Na'vi for answers. A lot of those people are young Sky People who see no hope or future for our world. They look to your world for hope. Pandora and the Na'vi have entranced many Sky People and in their hearts they yearn for a better way, which they believe the Na'vi can show them. There are many, many Sky People who speak Na'vi, for instance. That's how Norm learned to speak Na'vi."

Neytiri was confused. "Why would the Sky People want to speak our language?"

"Because many believe it helps them to understand your world and your people." He turned back to Normspellman and Maxpatel. "These are what we call the bottom-tier Resistance. They're the grunts, the gophers, the ones who want to make a difference but don't want to stick their necks out too far. Some of them engage in protests against the RDA, sit-ins, street theater, that sort of thing, but a lot of them just help us out when and wherever they can. Funny thing is, some of them have protested outside my lab back home because I'm an RDA contractor and I get lots of money from the RDA, which makes me "tainted" in their eyes."

Maxpatel considered that for a moment. "And the other groups and people?"

"Well then above the bottom tier are smaller groups of people and individuals who are active in the Resistance, but not in public, not 'officially' in other words. Some of them work for the RDA or the governments of Earth. They feed us intel, let us know what's going on, and act as intermediaries between us and the bottom-tier. They are the equivalent of middle-management."

"And finally, up at the top, are groups and people like me and the group I am working with. We're the movers and the shakers. We decide what strategies to take against the RDA, figure out how to implement those strategies, and then bring in the grunts to help us do it. Getting the information about what was going on here back to Earth was one of our earliest goals, for instance. For many of us at the top-level, we can't afford to stick our necks out at all. A lot of us work for the RDA, the Earth governments, the military, what have you. We're on the inside of the system. We know how it works and we're working to bring it down from the inside."

"And that leads me to the big question of the day. How did Jerry Handelman get involved with the Resistance?" Maxpatel asked.

"Long story short: Grace got me involved. Up until about twenty-five years ago, I had no idea that there was a 'Resistance' until Grace told me about it. Even back then, it was pretty well organized, but mostly directionless. She gave us something to focus on and that was what was going on here, what the RDA was doing here. I'm glad she got to me when she did, honestly."

"Why's that?" Normspellman asked.

"Because those who don't understand me think I am this brilliant, eccentric genius. Most people who don't understand me consider me to be a bit of a kook, a harmless kook but a kook nonetheless. I lived in my own little bubble until Grace came along, took me under her wing, so to speak, and helped me realize that there were more important things in life than writing the next big war game, jumping off some big tall building somewhere in my BASE suit, winning prizes and honors in physics, playing chess, or any of that. There was a world out here that we could protect and preserve, if we did things the right way. That's why I got involved with the Resistance and that is why I am still with the Resistance."

"Whatever became of the overgrown kid I remember from all those years ago?" Maxpatel asked him, apparently dumbfounded that this man before them was not the one he had once known.

"I grew up." Jerryhandelman said with an edge to his voice. "I have cultivated a public image of a brilliant, eccentric genius, who lives in his own little bubble, his own little reality. I have done that for a reason and that is so the people who built this place would never, ever think to suspect me of doing or planning what I am doing here. If they knew, they would kill me. Therefore, they can never know my true loyalties and my true agenda. That's the reason for all the subterfuge and the whole James Bond routine, Max. I can't afford to let my guard down for even one moment."

Maxpatel seemed a little put off by that, but before he could respond, Jake spoke up.

"Now that is all good and fine, but have you guys ever actually accomplished much of anything? You know, like actually stopping the RDA or anything like that?"

Jerryhandelman looked at her mate for a long moment, considering his thoughts. "No, not really, mostly because we didn't have a clue how to carry out our central goal: that of the dismantling and destruction of the RDA and everything they stand for until you came along."

"And that was what, exactly?" Jake asked him.

"Two things, actually. One, you stood up to the RDA and two, your report gave me the one piece of information I needed to complete our plan and that was when you transferred your soul to your Na'vi body. You showed me that it was possible to transfer my soul into Eywa and back again so she would then be able to defend herself with the knowledge in my head."

Jake mulled over that for a moment. "And that got your plan going?"

"Yes, sort of. The inception of this plan was several years ago, when I had the idea that if Eywa was a biological computer network, then wouldn't it be great if she could somehow take control of our computer network? The other people working with me thought it was a great idea too, but it was one of those things that seem good in theory, but in practicality, there was no way to do it. That's the way it stood for a while until one of my colleagues said to me, 'Jerry, you're the guy who figured out the way for the avatar drivers to communicate with their avatars, so figure out a way to turn Eywa into an avatar driver.' So, as a thought exercise, I sat down and figured out how to do that. But it was still theoretical until we got your report, Jake. I knew then that all I had to do was get myself to Pandora and get things going."

"And that is what you did." Jake finished.

"Well, not exactly. I spent about a week trying to talk myself out of it, figuring out all the angles and all the possibilities before I finally concluded that there was no one else but me who could actually pull this plan off because I am one of the very few people who has the necessary skill set to do it. I finally convinced myself that this was the right thing to do after I watched your video logs and then read your report.

"But that wasn't what finally convinced me to get going on this. After going back and forth with myself for a week or so, trying to figure out how to do this without coming out to Pandora, there came a point where I had to look at everything from a new angle. I went home, sat down, watched all your video logs again and your report, then watched the videos you had gotten from the gunships of the destruction of Hometree.

"I then sat down and cried for about an hour or so, mostly because I was really, really angry. The next day, I contacted one of my colleagues and told him we had to figure out how to get me to Pandora. It comes to pass sometimes that the weight of history lands on the shoulders of one person and this time that person happens to be me. I could have said, 'hey this is not my fight' and walked away, but I knew I had a responsibility to stand up and do what is right. So that is what I did."

The silence sat there as everyone took that in. Everyone looked at him in a different light after that. Neytiri regarded him with new eyes because now she could See into his soul.

"And the rest is history, eh?" Jake finally said.

"Yes, more or less." He turned his eyes toward Neytiri, a very bleak expression on his face.

"Neytiri, when your Great Mother took me into her, she showed me some things. She showed me your memories of the day your sister and the other Na'vi students at Grace's school were killed."

He paused, then forced himself to continue, the emotion in his eyes clearly evident. "I saw what they did and what they did angers me more than anything else. The people who did that may not be around now to answer for what they did, but the people who sent them here will pay for that. This I am sure of. The RDA has gotten me very, very angry at them. Very angry indeed."

Neytiri reached out to him and took his hand. "I See you." was all she could say at the moment.

"And it sounds like they pissed off the wrong guy!" Jake concluded.

"Yep. Very much so. Now do you see why I had to come here myself, why I am so driven to make them pay for what they did?

"Yes I do." Jake answered. "It makes a lot of sense now."

"Good, because I need you to understand what I've been going through since you kicked the RDA off the planet. We realized then that we had to do something to help you, or else you'd have been in a very bad place indeed."

"What exactly have you been going through?" Jake asked him, curious.

"I and the others came to the conclusion that we couldn't just sit around talking anymore. We actually had to do something. We have it within our power to affect the course of history on both Earth and Pandora. Up until a couple months ago, we were basically just talkers, not really doers, if you know what I mean."

"Yes, I got that." Jake said. "You were armchair warriors, not real warriors, like me."

"Yeah, something like that. But, I do know a few things about war, you know."

"How so? Aren't you just a geek?" Jake asked, again curious Neytiri was curious too.

"Because one of my three undergraduate degrees is in History, specifically Military History." He turned to Neytiri, "What this means is that I learned about and studied the wars we Sky People have fought throughout our history and the way we fight wars."

He turned back to Jake. "And the other thing about that is that it helped me write realistic battle scenarios and war games."

"You're into that too?" Normspellman asked him.

"Yes. How do you think I managed to pay my way through college? I wrote war games and simulations to bring in some extra money. My parents were of no help in that regard. I got lots of scholarships and grants and stuff like that, but I needed real spending money, money that was mine. So, the war games were way to put money in my pocket and engage in an activity I like. I don't do much of that anymore, but I still keep my hand in it now and then and it's a nice little lucrative sideline too. It helps keep me in the lifestyle to which I have become accustomed."

He turned back to Jake. "Just so you know, Jake. The online gaming community was humming for weeks after your report got back to Earth. Despite the RDA's best efforts to suppress it, we got it online and the 'Net was buzzing for weeks, dissecting it, analyzing it, and figuring out where you and the RDA went wrong and what you got right."

"So a bunch of armchair warriors became Monday-morning quarterbacks, is that what you're saying?" Jake muttered, his pride hurt.

"No, not exactly. We looked at your report of the battle, looked at the maps, and figured out some stuff you probably didn't even know at the time, the fog of war and all that."

"Which was what, exactly." Jake said, still miffed.

"That if you'd had enough time to get enough clans together you'd have kicked the RDA's butt big time. Quaritch forced your hand and if Eywa hadn't intervened when she did, you'd have lost and lost big."

The room was silent again for a few moments as everyone considered what Jerryhandelman had just said. Neytiri could not argue with him, because his words spoke truth.

"You're quite right," Jake said, after a few moments. "But we did win in the end and that is what counts. We kicked their butts."

"But you almost lost. I do have one question for you."

"Go ahead, ask away."

"Did you have any kind of a tactical meeting with the leader or leaders of your ground forces prior to the battle?"

"You mean the Horse Clan leader?" Jake responded. Jerryhandelman nodded and Jake continued. "Not a lengthy discussion no, but I and Neytiri did talk to him about what he might expect and how to deal with it."

"Did that discussion include the idea that mounting a frontal attack against a ground force that has superior firepower is a really, really bad idea?"

"No, because it never occurred to me that that RDA would send in ground forces to the extent they did. What, you're telling me you would have done better?" Jake snapped, his anger starting to rise again. Neytiri was getting a bit annoyed, but held that in abeyance. She took Jake's hand to calm him.

"Nope. In your position I probably would have done the same. You did what you could with the forces you had available, but at the same time you were trying to mount an aerial attack against the RDA's ships, your ground commander was carrying out the Na'vi equivalent of Pickett's Charge. Someone should have told him there was a better way to go about that attack."

"What is 'Pickett's Charge' Jerryhandelman?" Neytiri asked him, confused.

"It was from a battle fought amongst the American Sky People a long, long time ago. You can ask Eywa to explain it to you because she now has in her databank a 50-page term paper I wrote for a class in high school about Pickett's Charge."

"Dude, I was there." Normspellman said, evidently feeling a little slighted. "We charged them and they fought back and pushed us back, yes, but don't question our bravery."

"I'm not questioning that, Norm." Jerryhandelman said, "I am just suggesting that someone could have explained the concept of 'flanking attack' to the Horse Clan leader."

"And that person should have been you?" Jake said.

"Yes, actually. Jake, I would have followed you into the darkest pits of Hell itself if I had been here, but the worst thing you could have done would have been to give me a rifle and put me on the front line." He turned toward Neytiri. "It would have been an honor for me to go with you and explain to the Horse Clan leader what a 'flanking attack' is and how to carry one out. In this case, you could have divided up your ground forces and when the RDA was attacking the main force, the secondary force would have come around to the side and attacked them from behind. They would have been easy targets. You could have destroyed them completely."

"I can see that," Jake answered after a long moment as Neytiri was trying to figure out what a 'flanking attack' was based on Jerryhandelman's description, "but still, you're just a computer geek, you're no warrior."

"That's true, but I will tell you this. The computer security out here was laughable. I can guarantee you if I had been here before the battle and you could have gotten me into this facility, just with what's between my ears, I would have had a field day with the computers here. I would have had a grand old time, hacking in to their systems, uploading viruses, worms, and all sorts of fun stuff like that. Imagine if their systems weren't working right, imagine if their computers kept crashing and if they couldn't get their ships to fly right or their missiles to fire the right way. Imagine how the battle might have gone then. And that is not all, if I and some of my colleagues had gotten in here with some of our favorite toys, we would have tied Quartich and company up in so many knots that Quaritch's wargasm would literally never have gotten off the ground. How do you think the war would have gone at that point?"

"We would have kicked their asses completely and totally." Jake finally answered, "We'd have showed up outside Quaritch's doorstep with 20,000 Na'vi warriors. You're the computer geek and you know this stuff. You would have won the war for us."

"Yes. Which is why I am in charge of this operation, Jake. Electronic warfare and cyberwar are right up my alley, not yours."

"And I for one am glad you're in charge, I must confess." Jake said. "I'm not officer material yet, and if you think being a general is easy, you should try it yourself."

"No, it's not easy, Jake, which is why I need your help to carry this plan out."

"Ah, now here's where we get to the crux of the matter." Jake said with a twinkle in his eye. "The Great Man realizes he needs the help of other people to carry out his Master Plan."

"Yeah, something like that." Jerryhandelman looked tired again, like the weight of the world was resting on his shoulders. "I've never done anything like this before, none of us have."

"Well there comes a time when you have to stop thinking and start doing." Jake said.

"That's the idea, Jake, and that is why I'm the one to lead this thing because I am very, very good at thinking things through."

"And what do you mean by that exactly?" Jake said, a sharp edge to his tone.

"I mean that you're a nice guy, Jake, and I respect you, but you're not exactly the best or deepest thinker around. Some of us are a lot better at thinking things through than you are. That's all."

"I get that," Jake muttered, "but does that matter now? You have a plan. You figured it out and now you're going to make it happen, right?"

"Yes, but just as an example, Jake, let me quote something from your report back to Earth." He paused for a moment, "'After the ceremony where I became one of the Omaticaya, Neytiri took me to the Tree of Voices and it was there that we chose each other as mates, for life.' That's a direct quote, am I correct?"

"Yes." Jake said after a long moment. "And what are you getting at here?"

Jerryhandelman looked at Jake, then pointed to Neytiri and gazed at her with those penetrating blue eyes he had, eyes that could See very, very deeply, she was sure. "Neither you or your wife thought this whole thing through at all. Neytiri, you were supposed to be mated with Tsu'tey, correct?"

"Yes, that is true, Jerryhandelman. Why do you ask this question?" She was a little flustered and annoyed with him, but also curious.

"Because when you're dealing with an enemy like this, 'Eywa will provide' is not the best tactical plan in the world. There is no margin of error here and no room for mistakes. You make a mistake, I make a mistake, and that is it. We can't afford to get this wrong. This has to be thought through all the way by people who know what they're doing, not by people who don't think first."

"And that would be you, the Deep Thinker, correct?" Jake said, sounding a little miffed.

"Yes, and to get back to Neytiri's question, the reason I ask that is this. She didn't take you to the Tree of Voices to talk about the weather, the next day's hunt, or anything like that. She took you there for the express purpose of showing her true feelings for you to you so the both of you could mate for life, am I correct?" He turned to Neytiri.

"Yes, that is true." she said in a small voice. Clearly this man could See. "I took Jake there because I loved him and wanted him to mate with me."

"And that he was in an avatar body never crossed your mind?" Jerryhandelman said, looking directly at her.

"Yes, of course it did, but I didn't care about that. I loved Jake in whatever body he lived in because he was the right man for me. Does this not meet with your approval?" She wondered aloud.

"No, that is not it, believe me I am happy for the both of you and nothing would make me happier than to see the both of you live a long and happy life together and to grow old together." His expression went bleak again, "But there are people over there on Earth who would rather see both of you dead, Norm, Maxpatel, and the rest of the humans here too, if they had their way, which is why I am trying to stop them. Now what were you going to tell your parents the next day? That you decided not to mate with Tsu'tey? That you had chosen a dreamwalker to mate with?"

Neytiri pondered that for a few moments. "You seem very angry for some reason. Why are you angry? Are you angry with us? With Jake? Me?"

He looked at her, then Jake. "Grace was there at Hometree that morning, correct?" Jake nodded. "I am guessing she wasn't too happy to hear about the two of you mating for life?"

"Yes, you can say that. I think her exact words were 'Oh shit!' or something like that."

"She had good reason to be unhappy about it, Jake, Neytiri, and I'll tell you why."

Jerryhandelman paused for a moment, collected his thoughts then continued on. His voice took on a bleak, hopeless tone. "Let me tell you a story, Neytiri. It's about a young Na'vi woman and a Sky Person, a dreamwalker who has a life back on Earth, not much of a life, but he wants to experience life here on Pandora. He comes to Pandora, becomes a dreamwalker, and meets this young Na'vi woman from one of the clans. They fall in love, mate for life, but instead of living happily ever after with each other, their story ends very sadly because no matter what they both want, they can never be together. He is a dreamwalker and she is a Na'vi and they are from two different worlds.

"Knowing she can never be with him permanently, this young Na'vi woman attacks the RDA forces in a hopeless attack she knows will not succeed. Suicide by RDA, in other words. She dies, this man is heartbroken, and when he comes back to Earth, he kills himself because he now has nothing to live for anymore. The man was a friend of mine and a colleague. He killed himself right after he got home and yes, I miss him because we were good friends. He left Earth a hopeful man who wanted to find answers and came home a broken shell of a man who killed himself the day after he got back to Earth. And when he didn't show up for work the next day, I am the one who found him, his brains splattered all over the wall behind him. So yes, I am a little angry and that's because I am a little touchy on the subject of interspecies romance. I'm sorry."

Neytiri took his hand again. "I am sorry to hear of your friend but Jake and I are happy together because Eywa herself brought us together and blessed us. We are happy together."

He looked up at her. "I believe you, but that is not all there is to it." He looked at Jake. "Jake, when I finished reading your report and watched your video logs, I was very angry, mostly at the RDA, but also with you."

"Why's that?" Jake asked, curious.

"Because here you were, sitting high and fine, in your new home, with your new family and your wife at your side, good old lucky Jake, got himself a new life and a new world to live in. It sure sucks dead dog farts about Earth though, doesn't it? Gee, it sure would be nice if Jake would help out his fellow humans back on Earth but I guess that's not happening anytime soon. 'The aliens went back to their dying world' and all that. Gee, Jake, didn't it occur to you that there are some of us back there who don't want our world to die? You know, maybe you could help us out so there will be no more threats from Earth to this world. Help your fellow humans and all that."

"So what's your point, professor? I mean, I didn't know anything about the Resistance and if I had known, my attitude might have been a lot different." He said, his tone sounding sharp again.

"My point is this. Neither of you thought this thing through. What, you were going to take Neytiri home with you after you rotated back to Earth? Oh yeah, that's right, you become one of the People. You have a new life here and a new wife and all that. Good thing Eywa does soul transfers on the side, eh? Otherwise you'd have been in quite a weird situation with Netyiri. And I am guessing your wife wasn't really enthusiastic about Tsu'tey because no one bothered to ask her how she felt until you came along. And just like that the two of you are 'mated for life' before Eywa because love will find a way, or so I am told. And when exactly were you planning on telling her about the impending destruction of Hometree?"

"Yes, you are correct. Neither of us thought this through. Now that you have demonstrated your superior intellect, let me demonstrate a little of mine."

He picked up the object Jerryhandelman had been using earlier. "This is the West Side Loop Tower, correct? Jerryhandelman nodded. "How long did it take you to organize the jump you did off the top of the building here?"

"Three weeks. The other two jumpers wanted me because they knew I could defeat the security system in the building. We managed to gain access to a freight elevator and once we got in the shaft, we climbed up inside almost all the way to the top, where we worked a ventilation shaft cover off, got onto the roof, then climbed up the antenna. It took three weeks of planning, preparation, checking things out, and basically figuring out how to do it before we finally did it. And that was after several months of intermittent recon of the building and its systems so we knew what we were up against."

"And there is the difference between you and me. In that time I would have climbed up the side of the building, jumped off, and probably managed to pull off another couple jumps before you guys would have finally gotten your act together. While you were figuring out all the angles and calculating all the odds and all that crap, I would have been jumping off the fucking building, mostly likely many, many times before you finally got your gumption up and actually jumped off the fucking building."

Jerryhandelman smiled bleakly at Jake. "Right on all counts, and I am sure that your wife would be standing there asking both of us why we're planning on jumping off the building at all."

Jake smiled back at him, then looked at Neytiri, "And she'd be right to ask that question."

"Why do you jump from these buildings?" Neytiri asked him, genuinely curious.

"Well actually, I don't do very much of that sort of thing anymore. Nowadays if I do BASE jumping, it is jumping off cliffs and things like that, nothing illegal, like jumping off buildings or bridges. Why did I do it? Mostly for the thrill of doing something that isn't allowed, the danger of getting caught always at the fore, the planning and preparation for the jump, and the excitement of the jump itself, then the getaway from the structure you just jumped off of so you don't get caught. And then of course being able to brag about it afterward, which is how I got in trouble the last time, when I jumped off this building here. My employers found out way after the fact, put two and two together, and made an educated guess. They told me in no uncertain terms that I was not to do that sort of thing anymore if I wanted to stay employed at the university. So, that was my last building jump, in fact, other than a small cliff jump I did in Brazil last year, it was my last jump period until last week when I landed in the jungle thirty-some kilometers south of here."

Jake looked at him for a long moment. "You are a thinker, Jerry, and I tend to jump first and ask questions later, but that doesn't make you any better than me." He concluded.

"No it, doesn't, but this whole thing is like jumping off a high cliff, only I don't know where the bottom is, and I am not sure that my parachute works." He suddenly looked very tired. "I just want this whole thing to be over with." His head slumped down in his hands.

Jake got up and went next to him. "And that is why I am here for you, Jerry. This burden is not the kind of burden you can carry alone. If there is any way I or Neytiri can help you carry it, then let us know and we'll do it for you. Just ask."

Jerryhandelman looked at all of them. "That's good to know Jake. I will keep that in mind."

"In all honesty, I am a little nervous trusting my future to a bunch of wargamers and computer geeks, but this is what the Great Mother wants us to do, so I will do it." Jake said. "You said earlier that you would have followed me into the darkest pits of Hell if you had been here. Well, then let me tell you I will follow you all the way to Hell itself if it means there will be no more Sky People coming here to hurt us." He looked at Neytiri with those eyes that had captured her heart. "And if I miss my guess, I think Neytiri feels the same way I do."

"Yes, absolutely." she said.

Jake continued. "I just need to know you'll hold yourself together until this is all done. You can do that for us?"

"Yes." Jerryhandelman said, without much enthusiasm, Neytiri noted, but said with a note of firmness in his tone.

He looked at Jake, then Neytiri. "Jake, remember when I said you are a hero to a lot of us back home for standing up to the RDA?" Jake nodded. "Well, for a lot of us, you're an inspiration. If you can stand up to them, then we can too. You're the main reason I finally decided to get off my ass and start actually doing something about this shithole we find ourselves in. Your report and video logs were a great motivator for me to finally stand up for what is right. I saw a man unsure of himself and what he was doing here at the beginning of those reports grow to be a man absolutely sure of who he is and what he stands for by the end. Your brother would have been proud of you." he finished, his voice thick with feeling and emotion.

Jake looked at him for a long moment. "Coming from you, that is quite a compliment."

"I mean it, Jake. Your brother would have been proud of you, not only for what you did here to stand up to the RDA but also because you did some good science in those three months, some really good observation. I'm telling you as a professional researcher, someone who does this for a living, you did good, probably not as good as Tom would have done, but good nonetheless.

"Thank you." was all Jake could say to that.

"Have you shown the video logs to Neytiri." he asked Jake while looking at her.

"No, the thought never crossed my mind." He looked at her. "Do you think I should?"

"Absolutely yes. It would give your wife an insight into who you are and why you are the way you are if she were to sit down and watch those video logs. You should show them to her."

Jake was silent for a moment or two. "You're right, and that is exactly what I will do, only I won't do it. Promise me this, before things really get going on this plan and before we go to Earth, will you and Norm sit Neytiri down and watch the video logs with her, here at Hell's Gate? I'd prefer you and Norm do it because I trust both of you. You can explain everything to her and perhaps she'll learn a thing or two about her mate she didn't know before, if she wants to watch the logs." he finished, looking at her.

Jerryhandelman looked at Normspellman, who said yes, then looked at Jake and Neytiri. "Consider it done."

"Yes. I will do this, for you, Jake, if you think it is important for me to see these things." Neytiri said, looking at her mate. He smiled.

"Good." Jake said, putting his hand on Jerryhandelman's hand. "Then it's a deal. I'll keep you from overthinking and you'll keep me from jumping too soon and I think we can both help each other get through this in one piece with our wits about us."

"Sounds like a plan, Jake" Jerryhandelman said.

Neytiri put her hand on top of theirs. "And I in turn will do my part to keep both of you centered on the task at hand so you don't go crazy. This I promise to both of you."

Normspellman put his hand on top of theirs, followed by Maxpatel, "And we'll do everything we can to help you, Jerry." Normspellman said.

Everyone was silent for a long moment. Neytiri finally broke the silence. "Jerryhandelman, you should get some rest." Her mate agreed. "You look like shit warmed over, you really should rest up. Maxpatel offered one of the extra rooms in the complex and they agreed to meet at the Tree of Souls the next day.

- SCENE BREAK-

The evening was quiet. The cooking fire was damped down, the evening meal long done and finished, and for once, the Olo'eyktan of the Omaticaya and his mate were together in their own hammock, up in their new Hometree. This hammock had been donated by one of the neighboring clans, after the Great Battle Against the Sky People was over and they had found a new Hometree.

Neytiri smiled, remembering how the other Na'vi clans had come together to help the Omaticaya in their time of need, donating hammocks, food, weapons, tools, and just about anything else they would need to settle in to their new home. She had never really truly felt at home until she and Jake had gotten their hammock and put it in their new Hometree.

She looked at Jake and he back at her. He was thinking. They had been together long enough now that she could read his moods and she was coming to understand that making Tsahaylu with Jake had made their bonding an even deeper one that it would have been otherwise and in ways she was only now beginning to understand.

Jake was pensive. "Tell me, my love, what are you thinking?" she asked him.

"That it's pretty damn weird that our fate rests in the hands of a bunch of geeks." he muttered, sounding like he couldn't imagine a worse fate that to put his trust in Jerryhandelman and the people with him.

"Do you not trust Jerryhandelman?" Neytiri asked him, wondering if her mate's words to Jerryhandelman earlier that day had not been heartfelt.

"Oh yes, I trust him. It's just that he's a geek, and I don't particularly like geeks." Jake muttered again, with an undercurrent of defiance in his tone.

"Why do you not trust them?" She asked, curious.

"Because most geeks I knew on Earth, including my brother, were a bunch of bookworms and wargamers who sat in front of their computers all day, were way smarter than me and most other Sky People, and most of us found them very, very hard to relate to. And we're now supposed to follow this guy? I trust him, I just have a hard time getting past the idea that he's a geek."

"And this is a bad thing?" Neytiri wanted to know.

"Not really. It's just that it scares me a little that my fate is now in the hands of someone who probably has never gotten laid, knows how to use a slide rule but has no clue what a condom is for, couldn't bullshit his way out of a paper sack, and he wants to take on the RDA and the Earth governments? I sure hope he knows what he's doing, because I have no clue what he's doing or why."

Neytiri pondered that for a moment or two, Bookworms? Slide rules? Wargamers? Condoms? Bullshit? Her mate was making no sense to her, but that was to be expected. He was still, at heart, a man of the Sky People, even if he was mated to her and was now Na'vi. There was much she had yet to learn about Jake and his background. He was almost as much an enigma as Jerryhandelman was to her.

"Tell me, my Jake. Jerryhandelman talks of a fight that doesn't involve guns or arrows. Do you know of what he speaks?'

Jake thought for a moment. "Yeah. The Sky People call it cyberwar and people like Jerry are the ones who fight it. I knew a few of them when I was in the Marines." She looked at him, questioningly, "Uh, when I was in the Jarhead Clan, I mean." He continued. "The people who fight that kind of fight use computers. I wouldn't trust most of them farther than I could throw this Tree we're in right now. They're way, way smarter than me and the way they fight, the way they think is so damn sneaky it scares me. I don't know much about computers, but Jerry does, because he's a computer geek. He's entirely right, this is way, way out of my league. This kind of thinking, this kind of strategy is way beyond what I am used to. I am a warrior, not a thinker, not like this."

She put her hand to his face. "Remember how you prayed for Eywa to help before we fought the Sky People?" He nodded. "Then perhaps she has answered your prayer in a way you can't understand."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Think of it this way. Perhaps this Jerryhandelman coming here was Eywa's way of answering your prayer. She sent him to us because he can defeat the Sky People once and for all. We can't do it alone. I trust him because I trust in Eywa. Maybe it was Eywa who reached out to him and called him here to help us."

"That make sense. Still, it's just that I don't like playing second-banana to a geek. It's like I can't be good enough for him or something. It was the same way with my brother."

"Tell me about your brother. Does this Jerryhandelman remind you of him?"

"Absolutely. He sounds like Tommy, acts like Tommy, hell he even looks a little bit like Tommy. I can see Tommy's soul in his eyes and it's more than a little weird. I never really knew Tommy when we were growing up. I mean, we were close, we were twin brothers, after all, but he got the brains between the two of us. He was always reading some book or on his computer and Mom and Dad were always giving him all the attention. Me? I was the twin brother who graduated from high school while my brother the genius was finishing his doctorate. I got so damn tired of living in his shadow and when I see Jerry and talk to him, it's like I am seeing Tommy again, and all the old resentment and rivalry comes back up to the top all over again."

She stroked his chest, "You can't blame Jerryhandelman for any of that. He is doing what he thinks he has to do to help us. He seems like a nice enough man of the Sky People. I kind of like him in a way because he's much, much smarter than the other Sky People that we have dealt with. He reminds me a lot of Grace, and that is another reason why I trust him."

Her mate looked at her, "Yeah, that's what I get from him too, it's just that he is right, and that scares me."

"What do you mean, my love?"

"You know, up until he showed up, everything seemed like I was in a dream. I had a new life, I had you, I had everything going for me. I figured we could deal with the Sky People if and when they came back by calling upon Eywa to help us. He shows up and it's like getting a splash of cold water in my face. He shows up here out of the blue and expects me to follow him because he knows what's going on and I don't? He's right. I don't know what's going on. I was just a Corporal and now I am Olo'eyktan of the Omaticaya and Toruk Macto. That's a big leap for a guy like me."

"But it means everything to me, my Jake. Without you leading us, we would have lost the war against the Sky People. You are our leader and I will follow you anywhere."

Jake smiled at that. "Well, you might have your chance yet because I am following Jerry and I don't have the vaguest idea where he's taking us. I am not certain he knows either."

"Then we'll follow him together."

"And we'll all find out where he's taking us." Jake said, laughing a little. He looked at her. "You know, the biggest reason I went after the Toruk was you."

"Really?"

"Yes. Really. I had nothing left to lose and everything to gain by trying and I knew that was the only way I could make it up to you for what I did to Hometree." She put her fingers over his lips, remembering his confession to her one evening weeks earlier for his role in the destruction of Hometree, tearfully trying to explain. "No, my love. That was not your fault. The Sky People who destroyed Hometree used you to get what they wanted. They tricked you with their promises of healing your broken body if you would give them what they needed. They had no use for you, but you loved me and the People and you came back to us to lead us. And you did."

"But I didn't think any further than that." Jake said, "I loved you more than anything or anyone I have ever loved before." her heart swelled with love for him when he said that. "All I really wanted was to make it up to you, be with you, and fight the Sky People. And then suddenly I find myself leading a great army? That's why I prayed to Eywa. I needed her help. We needed her help."

"And she gave it to you, my Jake, and with Jerryhandelman, we can now defeat the Sky People once and for all time. They won't come back here ever again, if his plan works."

"That's a big if," Jake said, a bleak tone to his voice, "because we can't afford to fail."

"And we can't afford to stay up too late, my love. We must get some sleep and face the day tomorrow." she answered, then kissed him.

They looked into each other's eyes and she loved Jake with all her heart and soul.

"Goodnight, my Jake." she said as they drifted off to sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: In Which The Plan Starts to Come Together

The next day, things started to come together in a way Neytiri could understand, even if she didn't have the vaguest clue what Jerryhandelman was actually doing.

She and Jake, along with her mother and a number of other Na'vi were at the Tree of Souls. Some of the Na'vi were there because they were curious about these strange Sky People who were there to help them. Others because they wanted to help out, if they could. She and Jake were there to make sure everything would go smoothly and that the Tree was not harmed in any way.

There was also a surprise. Jerryhandelman had brought along Normspellman to help him but also two other Sky People who were strangers to Normspellman. They were standing next to the Samson, with some Sky People machinery next to them.

Jerryhandelman introduced them as "Tomanderson" and "Scottbellovin" and said they were Sky People who worked for him. "These are two of my colleagues who work with computers." he said as he introduced them. "They're here to help me and Norm get the equipment set up here."

Jake was curious about them. "So you're with the anti-RDA group?" He asked.

"Yes, more or less. We're both computer science professors at GWU." Tomanderson said. "My field is computer networking and network security and Scott's field is neural networks and computer programming." He turned to Jerryhandelman, "and we're here because Jerry can't get this stuff set up by just himself and Norm."

"But," said Scottbellovin, turning to Neytiri, "we're also part of Jerry's group and we're here to help you and your people in any way we can."

"Good." Neytiri said. "The Omaticaya and all Na'vi are very glad you will help us today and when you are done here, we will have a feast at our new home for you."

"Then let's get started," Jake said.

There were two small Sky People machines next to a larger one of some kind. Jerryhandelman went over to the larger machine. "This is the power supply for both of these other machines. It will make them run, but we won't be running it all the time. We'll hook everything up and make sure it works, then go from there."

He pointed to the other machines. "This one here we'll hook up to the Tree of Souls and this other one will be used to get the signal from here to Hell's Gate." He turned to Jake. "And one we're set up, we'll have to go to the shack where Neytiri found you and get some of the equipment there."

Jake nodded. "No problem."

Jerryhandelman pointed to one of the Sky People machines. "We need to move this machine over to the Tree and hook it up." He and Scottbellovin went to the machine and picked it up. It was small, but evidently very bulky. Jake motioned to Neytiri and they both walked over to Jerryhandelman. "Could we help?" Jake asked.

"Nah, we got it. Could you two carry the other machine? We'll need that next and then it will take all four of us to move the power supply."

"Sure." Jake and Neytiri walked over to the other smaller machine and picked it up. They followed Jerryhandelman over to the Tree. They were easily able to keep up with Jerry and his friend, both of whom were straining to get the machine to where it needed to be. Jerryhandelman's friend was sweating behind his exopack.

Finally, they got to the Tree. "Whew!" Jerryhandelman said as they set their machine down. He turned to Jake and Neytiri. "You guys can set that one right there for now. We'll attach it to this machine later. Now we get the power supply."

They all walked back to the Samson. The 'power supply' Jerryhandelman was talking about was much bigger and took all four of them to get it over to the Tree. Normspellman and Jerryhandelman's other friend followed behind, carrying some other equipment they would need.

At long last, everything was at the Tree. Jerryhandelman. He pointed to the 'power supply' they'd just set down. "Step one, get that thing running and plug the other two machines into it."

He and Tomanderson went to that machine began doing things to it. A minute later, they looked at Jake and Neytiri. "It's ready."

Then Jerryhandelman and his friends did some things to the other two machines, attaching various cables and other things to each of them and to the power supply machine. After a few minutes, Jerryhandelman stood up and announced, "Alright, everything is set up, but we need to do a couple more things. Jake, could you go back to the Samson and get those steel plates I put in the back? And the welding gear? We're going to need to harden this equipment against the flux."

Jake turned around, "Sure, no problem." Neytiri asked if he needed a hand. "Yeah, Neytiri can go help get some of the stuff. I was hoping we wouldn't need to use it, but that's not the case."

They went back to the Samson. Jake grabbed a Sky People machine and gave it to her, along with some strange-looking masks. It was heavy, but not as heavy as the other equipment. He grabbed some metal sheets behind the seat and they walked back to the Tree.

"Alright," Jerryhandelman said, "we need to assemble these sheets around these three machines so the flux won't interfere with the equipment." He and the others set to work.

Neytiri knelt down next to one of the machines. "I have a question for you, Jerryhandelman."

"Shoot." He said, not looking at her as he was struggling with something on the machine.

"Shoot? But I don't have a gun? Is this more of your sarcasm?"

"No." Jake said, "it just means he wants you to ask him the question, so go ahead."

"Well, then can you tell me what this 'flux' is?" she asked, trying not to let her exasperation with this man who spoke in riddles get the better of her.

"It's one of the reasons why the Tree of Souls is your people's most sacred sites. The flux causes problems for our equipment because of something called an 'electromagnetic field' and that field is really, really strong right here, around the Tree."

"Spoken like a true physics geek." Jake laughed.

"Yeah, something like that." Jerryhandelman muttered under his breath.

"What is 'el-eck-tro-mag-net-ick field'?" Neytiri asked, beginning to wonder if this man didn't actually speak English like Jake or Normspellman did.

"It's like this. It's what allowed you and Jake to communicate with each other during the battle, it's what made your radios work." he said.

She digested that for a moment, the decided she could be of better use to him if she helped him rather than asking him questions. "Can I help you in any way?" she asked him as she watched him working.

"Sure. You can hold this panel right here," he indicated a point on the metal sheet he was holding, "so I can weld it to the other one." She complied. "You'll have to use your other hand to hold that screen over there in front of your face." he said, pointing to something on the ground.

"Why this?" she said, picking it up."

"It's to protect your eyes from the light." Jake answered, nodding his head in Jerryhandelman's direction. "Jerry doesn't want you to be blinded by the light from the welding torch."

She picked up the object and held it in front of her face with one hand while holding on to the metal sheet with the other. The object was a dark, opaque pane of glass or something else she didn't understand.

"You'll understand as soon as I start up the torch." Jerryhandelman said as he picked up the welding torch in his other hand. He had something on his head similar to what she was holding in front of her. He dropped it down in front of his face, then stopped. He waved around at the various Na'vi near where they were working. "Neytiri, tell them not to look over here, they might be blinded. She told everyone else to look away, noting in passing that Jake and Normspellman and the other two Sky People had put screens over their faces as well.

Jerryhandelman started the welding torch and began welding. She watched, fascinated as he took two pieces of metal that had been separate and made them one piece of metal, a single point of moving light, going along the seam. In a matter of a couple minutes or so, he had completely welded a shelter of sorts for this one machine.

"So what you're doing right now is essentially hardening the electronics to resist the flux?" Normspellman asked, when Jerryhandelman had finished and was admiring his handiwork some minutes later.

"Yeah," Jerry said, "something like that. Dude, this will protect everything so it will work flawlessly. We don't want to have this stuff conk out on us right when we need it. That would suck dead donkey balls, now wouldn't it?"

"Amen to that, dude." Normspellman said, smiling and raising his hand in a fist with his thumb pointing upwards.

Neytiri watched and listened to this little interchange. "Dood, what is hardening?" she asked Jerryhandelman.

He stopped what he was doing and looked right at her. "Uh, back up a step. You do not call me 'dude' ever, understand?"

Neytiri stepped back. "I am sorry. Did I insult you? I meant no insult." she said, feeling mortified.

"No, it's not that. I wasn't insulted, I was just telling you that you can't call me a dude. Not now, not ever. That's all."

"Why is this?" she asked him, genuinely curious.

"Because only another Geek gets to call me 'dude' and the only people here who are Geeks are Norm, Tom, and Scott, that's why."

"Yeah, said Tomanderson, "you're not a Geek."

"Exactly," Jerryhandelman continued, "it's a sign of recognition amongst us Geeks." He turned to Normspellman, "Dude." he said as he nodded his head. Normspellman responded in kind. Jerryhandelman then turned to Neytiri. "It's our way of recognizing each other, our sign of identification to each other. In other words, when I call him 'Dude' I'm saying to Normspellman 'I see you there before me, my fellow Geek, let us celebrate our Geekiness for we are Geeks and Geeks Rule!'"

Neytiri pondered that for a moment or two. "How do I become a Geek?" she finally asked, perplexed and curious at once.

Normspellman and Jerryhandelman looked at each other and burst out laughing. Jake joined in, chuckling at her.

She was getting angry. "Why do you laugh at me?" she asked, her anger starting to rise.

"We're not laughing at you." Normspellman said, it's just that very, very few Sky People want to be geeks let alone actually are geeks."

"Why is that?" Neytiri asked.

Jerryhandelman, Normspellman, Tomanderson, and Scottbellovin all looked at each other, her, then Jake and all four burst out laughing again. To her annoyance, her mate was laughing the hardest.

She'd had it. "Why are you laughing!" she snapped.

Everyone stopped. Jerryhandelman looked at her, then at her mother. "Uh, sorry, Neytiri. It's just that being a Geek isn't something you can become. You kind of have to be born into it. And being a Geek isn't exactly something you want to become."

"Why?" she asked, now utterly confused and uncomprehending.

"Because geeks are at the bottom of the totem pole among the Sky People." her mate answered, looking toward Jerryhandelman and the others.

"What is a 'tot-tem pole?'" she asked, even more mystified than ever.

"Uh, it's just a way of explaining social rank among the Sky People." Normspellman said, nodding to Jerryhandelman as he did so, "it's how we Sky People rank ourselves and geeks are down at the bottom of the rank, that's all."

Jerryhandelman nodded back. "Exactly. But the thing is, the rest of the Sky People need us, even though they ridicule us and treat us like dirt."

"And why is that?" she asked him.

"Because we're the ones who build their technology, their machines, and run their civilization." Normspellman answered.

"And yet the other Sky People treat you very badly?" Mo'at asked, joining in the conversation.

Jerryhandelman turned to her mother. "Yes. We're shunned and ignored by most other Sky People because they don't understand us nor do they want to. They only deal with us when they need something from us. Other than that, they act like we're beneath them." He turned to Neytiri, "and you want to become a Geek?"

"I want to understand you and your people, Jerryhandelman, so I can understand how you are helping free my people from the threat of the Sky People."

"Well, that's a little hard to explain." He said, "Grace didn't teach you about something called 'Quantum Mechanics' when you went to her school, did she?"

"What is 'Quant-um Meck-an-icks?" she asked, getting confused again.

"I thought not," he said, "There is no way I could teach you what I know because you can't understand it. You don't have the body of knowledge I have to understand what we do."

She considered that for a moment. "Yes, that makes sense to me. It is just that I want to understand you and the Geek Clan so I can know more about you."

"Fair enough." he said. "It's like this." He took a stick and drew a line in the ground. "This is a representation of something we call a 'scale' and in this case what it represents is the scale of human intelligence. This end over here is the dumb end and this other end is the smart end, understand?"

She nodded to him, not really understanding but hoping this would make sense soon enough.

He pointed to the 'dumb end' of this scale he had just talked about. "Most of the Sky People, including the people who build Hell's Gate, are over on this end, the dumb end. Over here, at the other end, are people like me and Jake's brother, Tom.

"And me too." Normspellman interjected, pointing to the smart end of the scale.

"Dude!" Jerryhandelman glared at him, "We're the smartest of the Sky People, and there aren't very many of us. Most of the people you dealt with here are at this end of the scale, because we're scientists and we seek knowledge."

"And the Sky People here?" Neytiri pointed to the other end of the scale.

"They're the majority of our race, I am afraid." Jerryhandelman said. "But we Geeks are smarter than they are, a whole lot smarter. In fact, that's what I am counting on."

"Why is that?" she asked.

"Because that means we can and will out-think them." he answered.

"And out-thinking them is the name of the game!" Normspellman said in response.

"Yes, exactly." Jerryhandelman said. "And that is exactly why we're going to defeat them. Because we're smarter than they are. A lot smarter."

"But how do you 'out-think' these people." she asked.

"You think ahead, three, four, five, moves ahead of them. You anticipate what they will do or not do in a particular circumstance, figure out what all the possibilities are likely to be, determine your course of action from that, and while they're trying to catch up with you, you're way ahead of them. It's just like playing chess, only on a level four or five levels above what is considered 'normal' or whatever you want to call it."

"Chess? What is that?" she asked.

"Uh, it's a game Geeks play, not really important right now, I play it and most Geeks play it," he answered, then turning to her mate, "including your brother, Jake. Tom was absolutely the best chess player I ever played against. I only won a few games against him in all the years he was my student and we worked together. He was one bright guy, was Tom Sully. He was one of only two people I consider to be smarter than me, Jake."

"Yeah, thirty years of teaching, I never had a better student." Scottbellovin said.

"You were his karyu, but I thought Jerryhandelman was his karyu?" Neytiri asked, surprised.

"Jerry was Tom's thesis adviser, but he took a class from me during his coursework."

"Coursework?" She asked, now getting even more confused.

"It's what Tom did to get his Ph.D., kind of like what you did with Grace, only on a much, much higher level." Normspellman said.

"Oh," she said, "I think I understand that. He went to school then?"

"Well yes, to get his doctorate he had to take some classes, but for me and his teachers, it was kind of strange because he was so very, very smart." Jerryhandelman said.

"So who is the other person you consider smarter than you, Jerry?" Jake asked him.

"My thesis adviser, the late Dr. Ian Woon."

"Ian Woon was your thesis adviser? I read a couple books of the many that have been written about him." Normspellman interjected. "He was truly larger than life, that guy!"

"That's putting it mildly. Ian lived more lives and did more in this life than most of us can dream of. He was truly a Renaissance man, was Ian Woon, author, adventurer, explorer, scientist, researcher, you name it, he did it. He was a writer, among other things and it was said he could write a full-length book in a month, when he was at his peak. He inspired me and a lot of other people. He did a lot, got around a lot and he was smart, damn smart. Jake, your brother was smarter than him, even. Way, way smarter."

"Yeah, Tom was a smart guy alright," her mate said, looking off into the distance, "that's why I could never really relate to him when we were growing up. He was too smart for me."

Neytiri considered that for a moment or two. "But he was your same age? And he learned more than you did? He must have really been very smart then."

"Yes." Jerryhandelman said. "Neytiri, it's like this. Jake's brother and Sky People like me are called 'child prodigies' among the Sky People because we're very, very fast learners."

"I don't understand, some Sky People learned faster than others? Is that why Jake's brother was smart? Was he a fast learner?"

"Exactly." He said, turning to face her. "You're what, about eighteen or nineteen of your years of age, correct?'

She thought for a moment. "Yes that is correct. I just turned nineteen of our years of age earlier this year, before Jake came here and came into my life."

He look off into the distance for a moment. "That would make you eighteen, almost nineteen of our years of age if you were a human." he said after a moment.

"If you say so." She answered.

"It's like this. Most Sky People of your age have just gotten or will soon get their high school diplomas, meaning they either will graduate or have just graduated from high school."

"What is a diploma?" she asked.

In answer, Jerryhandelman turned to her mother, "Mo'at, imagine if Neytiri had continued going to Grace's school. Eventually, after a few more years, she would have gotten what we call a 'diploma' from Grace's school, which is a fancy way of saying she would have been finished her education from Grace's school. A diploma is just a piece of paper that says you finished your schooling and Neytiri would have gotten hers by now if she were a Sky Person."

"How so?" Mo'at asked him.

"Well it is like this. It takes we Sky People about twelve of our years to educate our young and at the end, when they are about eighteen of our years of age, they 'graduate' from what we call high school." He turned to Jake, "And, if I don't miss my mark, that is exactly what you did, Jake."

"Yup." her mate grunted in response.

"Now, most Sky People do their required twelve years of education and then that is it for them. They don't continue to educate themselves. Others go on to get more education at what we call 'college' and that is usually for only four years. Then they get another 'diploma' that says they went through a specialized education and now have earned the right to be members of the group from that program. They can call themselves Bachelors Degree holders."

"But then others go on to get something called a 'Masters Degree' which is an even more specialized educational program," Normspellman said, "and at the end of that, they get yet another 'diploma' that says they can now call themselves Masters of Science, Education, or Whatever it is they studied and learned about."

"Exactly. And finally, some like me and Norm, Tom, and Scott here, go on to get a Doctorate, which is the highest form of education we Sky People have, and usually a Doctorate takes years to accomplish." Jerryhandelman concluded.

He turned back to Neytiri, "Neytiri, this whole process usually means the Sky Person who gets a Doctorate has been in school for most of his or her life and people don't usually get Doctorates until they are in their late twenties or early thirties in Sky People years. By the time I was your age in human years, I had already gotten all three of my Bachelor's degrees, had one of my Master's Degrees, and was about to get the second one."

"And this was because you are very smart for a Sky Person?" her mother interjected.

"Yes. I am considered one of the smartest Sky People alive right now." He said.

"How smart are you?" Neytiri asked.

"My intellect can't really be measured because it is so far off the scale of normal human experience. I was already talking when I was six months old, making complete sentences before I was one and a half, and capable of having a complete conversation before my second birthday. I built my first computer when I was around five years old. I was writing short stories and complete symphonies when I was five years old, tested out of most of what we Sky People call "grades" before I was nine and finished high school by the time I was about your age when you were going to Grace' school, a feat you would have had to have gone through another six years or so of education to even come close to me. And then I took some tests and got two of my undergraduate degrees before I was thirteen, got the next one the next year and got both my Master's Degrees by the time I was nineteen and then it was on to my Ph.D."

"But didn't you say you had two of them?" she asked him.

"Yes. I started out with one big project, but it was so big and ambitious that my adviser suggested I break it up into two projects, which sucked dead donkey balls because it took me twice as long to get both and I had to have two separate committees for the two, but I did finish them."

"Before you were 25, correct." Normspellman said.

"Yup." Jerryhandelman said. "I got my second one the day after my 21st birthday."

"You are a wise man, Jerryhandelman" Mo'at said, after a moment.

"I've been called that, yes." he answered.

"Yet you are a strange man," Mo'at continued, "you are wise, yet you speak in riddles, you are a smart man, this I can see. Your cup is full."

"My cup runneth over." he said.

Jake laughed at that remark. Mo'at looked at him for a moment, then at Jerryhandelman. "Yes. You have much knowledge for a Sky Person. Many of the Sky People we have dealt with in the past were just like you. Their cups were already full. There was little we could teach them because they had so much wisdom in their heads. Jerryhandelman, you are the strangest Sky Person we have ever seen." she finally concluded.

"Well, that's been said about me by other Sky People. I'm different, but I like what I do and very, very few Sky People understand what I do."

"And what is it that you do?" Neytiri asked.

"I'm what your people call a karyu. I'm a teacher. I study and learn about new things in physics and computers and teach other Sky People about them." He pointed to Tomanderson and Scottbellovin, "and I am their boss because I'm in charge of the computer science department where we work. I'm what is called a Department Head of that group of Sky People. In a way, I am like the Olo'eyktan of this group of Sky People"

"And a very good DH you are!" Tomanderson said.

"Yes. I hired you, remember." Jerryhandelman said.

"How could I forget." Tomanderson responded.

"And this must be very good for you, to be their leader?" Neytiri asked him.

"Yes, but the problem is I now have so much crap to deal with, it takes me away from teaching, I have to deal with a bunch of idiots above me too, idiots who have no idea what I need and can't understand why I need it. Too much bullshit, it takes me away from teaching. I only took the job because no one else wanted it and I can definitely see why."

"What is 'bullshit' Jerryhandelman?" Mo'at asked.

"It's more sarcasm," Jake said, "and Jerry, you're a nice guy, but could you dial down the sarcasm a tad. I am getting tired of trying to explain stuff to Neytiri all the time."

"I'll try." was the noncommittal response, "it's just this is the way I am.

"And we wouldn't have you any other way!" Scottbellovin said, "You're the best Department Head we've ever had because you're hardly ever around."

Jerryhandelman smiled, "Yeah, because I'm traveling around a lot, or getting interviewed, or promoting my next book, or whatever else, the price of fame, you know, but still, the thing I like doing most is teaching." He waved around, "And it's stuff like this that takes me away from my lab. I'd prefer to stay on Earth, in my lab, doing research, but I can't do very much of that right now because duty calls, but someday, this will all be over and my life will be back to normal, I hope."

"And you'll be back to teaching, so the rest of us can't cover your ass when you're off gallivanting around," Scottbellovin said, "I'll cover for you for that networking seminar tomorrow but you're getting your ass back to Earth in two days. I won't cover that lecture you're scheduled to do on Friday. We can't continue to cover for you forever, boss."

"Yes mother," was Jerryhandelman's response.

"Well now that we have all that figured out, what's next?" Jake asked.

"Now we test the equipment to make sure everything is running fine and then you, me and Neytiri go to the link shack where she found you so we can get more equipment."

"Sounds like a plan." Jake said.

Jerryhandelman pointed to something on one of the machines. "Neytiri, if you will do the honors. See if you can make tsahaylu with your Great Mother through that machine there, see that opening, bring the end of your queue into it and let's see if you can interface with Eywa through it."

She nodded and knelt down beside the machine. She put her queue into it and a moment later, felt the familiar tingle as she bonded with the Great Mother. "I can hear and feel her!" she said, "She is speaking to me through your machine!"

"Good." Jerryhandelman said. "We need to test some things so this might take a few moments to complete." Scottbellovin and Normspellman went to the other machine and Jerryhandelman and Tomanderson began doing some things to the machine she was at.

"Let's test the signal gain on the transducer first, Scott." he said to Scottbellovin. Scottbellovin did something to his machine and after a moment, Jerryhandelman looked at his machine, then asked Normspellman a question, something to do with "signal transduction" (whatever that was) and getting an affirmative answer, he asked a question of Tomanderson. Getting an answer he apparently liked, Jerryhandelman then did something else to his machine.

After a few moments, Jerryhandelman looked at Scottbellovin, "Start increasing the bandwidth balls to the wall all the way and I'll start dropping the filter down. Let's see how much signal we can get out of this rig."

Scottbellovin looked at Jerryhandelman for a moment. "Are you sure, boss? You really want me to ramp up the bandwidth all the way?" he said, looking at Neytiri very dubiously. "What happens if we go too far with it?"

"Don't worry. I think Neytiri can handle it." Jerryhandelman said. "Do it."

Scottbellovin nodded his head and did something with his machine.

Jerryhandelman looked at her, "Neytiri, in a moment, I am going to make the signal coming to you from Eywa a lot stronger. Let me know if it hurts you in any way or if anything strange happens."

"I am ready." she said.

"I'm ramping up the bandwidth." Scottbellovin said.

"And I am lowering the filter all the way down. Here we go." Jerryhandelman did something to the machine in front of him then looked at her. "Notice anything different?"

"Only that She feels clearer to me, for some reason, and I can hear her, I feel her, much, much better." she said.

"Hot damn! It works!" he exclaimed. "You can disconnect from Eywa now, we know it works!" he said after a moment.

"This is good?" she asked.

"This is very good. I just ramped up the electrochemical signal from the Tree by boosting it with this machine here. If you can hear your Great Mother fine then that means we have a good, solid signal. All I have to do now is get that signal from here to Hell's Gate where we can boost it again and then send it to Earth. And once that's done, we're in business. You've also made history, Neytiri."

"Why is that?" she asked him.

"Because you're the first Na'vi to test this machine here. It was an idea I had a few years ago for an artificial version of your queue that humans could use, but I could never quite get it to work. It works fine for Na'vi though, as you just demonstrated."

"You mean you could have tried to connect yourself to the Great Mother with this machine?" she asked.

"Well, not really." he said, "it's like this. Imagine the loudest sound you've ever heard."

She thought for a moment or two. "I remember once hearing a loud thunderclap one day when I was little." she finally said.

"Now try and imagine that sound a hundred, or a thousand times louder and imagine that sound in your head." he said, "that is what would have happened to me if I had tried to connect my brain directly to your Great Mother. What do you think that would have done to my mind?"

"It would have destroyed it." she said.

"Exactly. You have what we call a 'bandwidth filter' in your brain, that lets you modulate the signal from Eywa. I don't, because I am a Sky Person, and had I tried to connect up with herself directly, your Great Mother's voice would have probably either destroyed my mind or made me go insane, which would have sucked dead donkey balls, mostly for me but also for you because the knowledge your Great Mother needs to defend herself would have been destroyed as well."

"In that case, I am glad you didn't try to do that!" she said.

"Well," he said, "we're basically finished up here." He indicated his two companions. "Scott and Tom are done here. I don't need them for what we have left to do here. Norm can help me with everything else here."

"But we'll both stick around for a bit just to make sure Jerry has everything ready and in case we're needed." Scottbellovin said. "And we'll gladly partake of the feast you guy said you will have in our honor tonight." Tomanderson said, "as soon as Jerry finishes up here with the last of what's got to be done here."

"And what would that be?" Neytiri asked.

"Well basically, we have to make sure Murphy's Law doesn't bite us in the ass." was Jerryhandelman's response.

"Murphy's Law?" she asked.

"It's a statement that a Geek from a long time ago came up with to explain why things don't always happen the way you want them to." Jerryhandelman said, "His law says this: 'If anything can go wrong …'"

"It will go wrong!" Scottbellovin, Tomanderson, and Normspellman all chimed in at once.

Jerryhandelman smiled at that. "Basically, what I need to do is figure out what could go wrong and be prepared for anything and everything if and when it happens, so that everything will happen the way I want it to. Be prepared, along with triple redundancy, is my motto."

"Which is why we need some of the stuff from the link shack." Jake said. Jerryhandelman nodded. "Yes, exactly. But first, I have to check something on the other machine. He walked over to the machine where Scottbellovin were standing next to. She followed him.

There was a screen, similar to the screens she had seen on other Sky People machines, with a whole bunch of incomprehensible Sky People symbols and numbers running up and down it, faster that she could hope to read or understand.

Jerryhandelman and Scottbellovin both seemed very pleased with what they saw. "That's a beautiful network crunching away if I ever saw one," Scottbellovin said.

"What is this?" she asked them.

"It's a representation of the signal you were getting from your Great Mother through our machine, only it's encoded in a way that we Sky People can see and understand, sort of. Some of us, at least, can make some sense of this."

"The programmers amongst us, mostly." Scottbellovin said, pointing to himself.

"Yup." Jerryhandelman said, "Scott's one of the best programmers around, even better than me."

"Coming from you, that's quite a complement!" Scottbellovin said, "and like I said, this machine is telling me your Great Mother is alive and well and her neural network is working at full speed. Even if Jerry had to steal it to get it here."

Neytiri gasped, "Are you a thief, Jerryhandelman?"

Jerryhandelman glared at Scottbellovin for a moment. "No, it's just that this machine actually belongs to a colleague of mine and we needed it here. So I 'borrowed' it, I just haven't told him, yet."

"And I'm guessing that is because he would ask questions about what you're using his machine for, questions you don't want to answer." Jake said, smiling.

"Yeah, something like that, besides he's on sabbatical in London at the moment, he won't know this machine is missing. It was in a big storeroom next to one of my labs which we were clearing out the other day to make room for you guys to stay when you come to Earth. I decided to put it to good use here instead of putting it in another storeroom somewhere else."

"A storeroom, eh?" Jake said, "we're gonna be staying in a janitor's closet then?"

"No, it's just a big, empty room which I control, and it's the best we could come up with on short notice. It'll be just like home. Trust me. It's not like we can put you guys up in a Motel 6 or something. I mean, we'll have to keep you hidden. You guys would stick out like sore thumbs if we didn't. I mean, where best can you hide a bunch of three-meter tall blue-skinned Na'vi?"

"We've trusted you this far, so what's next, professor?" Jake said, still smiling.

"All I have to do is get the signal from here to Hell's Gate and then from there back to my lab on Earth, but first things first, let's head over to the link shack to get what I need."

"And that shack is right over this way, just a couple kilometers or so from here, in that direction," Jake said, "it's close enough that we can walk to it." And with that, he, Normspellman, Jerryhandelman, and she all walked off into the jungle toward the shack where she had rescued Jake.

-SCENE BREAK-

The shack was not much different from when she'd last seen it, when she had found Jake here and saved his life. Weeks of rain and weather had blown the door in, and the window Quaritch had shattered was collapsing, The roof looked like it could use some repair, but otherwise, to her eye it still looked like the Sky People building she had found Jake in, gasping for breath.

Quaritch's mechanized suit was still there, where it had fallen, but his body was long gone, eaten by Pandoran predators and scavengers alike. "I'd be tempted to piss on what's left of him if there was anything left of him in that suit, but he's not worth the waste of a good leak." Jerryhandelman declared as they walked near the suit and up to the shack.

Jerryhandelman didn't like what he saw.

"I hope the machinery is not ruined," he muttered, "otherwise we'll have to make a second trip back to Hell's Gate, and that will use up more fuel for the Samson."

"Would that be bad?" Neytiri asked, as they walked up to the shack.

"Yes. There is only so much fuel for the Samsons. It's the same fuel used to keep the base running, and once we run out of it, that's it. No more fuel. Period. And that would suck."

"It would suck 'dead donkey balls'?" she asked, wondering if she understood this man finally.

"No it would just suck. There are gradations of suckage, some things suck more than others. We can get more fuel, I have some ideas for how to do that, but in the short term, it would suck."

He looked inside the broken window and frowned. "I'd better take a look around and see if there's anything we can salvage here. He walked in the door to the shack. "Jake, Norm, I'll need you both in a few moments, as soon as I figure out if there is anything worth salvaging. I think we can carry all or most of it back to the Tree, we'll just have to put our heads together and figure out how."

"No prob, dude," Jake said, "we'll hang tight right here."

"Why do you get to call him 'dude'?" Neytiri muttered, her tail twitching in exasperation.

"Because he's Tom's brother and he gets special dispensation, that's why." Jerryhandelman answered with finality as he stepped into the shack.

Normspellman leaned over toward her. She looked down at him. "Don't say anything to Jerry, but if you want to, you can call me 'dude' too." he said, very quietly.

She smiled. "I will keep that in mind, Normspellman."

Jerryhandelman emerged from the shack a few moments later. He looked unhappy. "You guys better come in here." he said.

They all walked into the shack, Neytiri and Jake having to bend down to get in the door. The interior of the shack was ruined. Weeks of Pandoran weather, animal activity, and exposure to the elements had ruined the shack's interior. Clearly whatever it was Jerryhandelman needed here was ruined along with the shack and also clearly, he wasn't too happy about it.

"Jake, Norm, did you guys have a kegger in here?" Jerryhandelman asked them.

"What happened to this place?" Jake asked.

"It's been trashed, possibly by animals, but also by something else." He pointed to a corner of the room, where pieces of equipment and various things had been piled up. "That was not done by the wind or rain, and it is too deliberate to have been done by animals. Someone, or perhaps several someones have been in here since you were last here, Jake. Did you tell anyone about this place?"

"Nope, not really." Jake said. "The only thing I did was to make this off-limits to the younger clan members. I don't want them coming in here and getting hurt, this place has too much stuff that could be dangerous."

"Good for you, but apparently, some of your clan members or perhaps other Na'vi have been in here. What the wind, rain, and elements didn't destroy they destroyed by moving stuff around, possibly taking things, I don't know. What I do know is that what I needed from this shack has basically been ruined, which means I'll have to get it somewhere else."

"Meaning you'll have to go to Hell's Gate?" Jake asked him.

"It looks that way," Jerryhandelman said, looking glum.

"But what about the other shack?" Normspellman piped in.

"What other shack?" Jerryhandelman asked him, sharply.

"The one up in the mountains, right next to this shack, until we moved it down here to be closer to the Tree, that shack." Normspellman said, sounding a bit exasperated himself.

"You mean to tell me there is another shack somewhere around here and you didn't tell me?" Jerryhandelman said, getting a bit angry.

"Uh yeah, there is, all sealed up and ready to go, but we didn't tell you about that because you said we could get what you needed here."

"I said that because I thought this was the only shack out here. We'll need to go to the other shack now." Jerryhandelman muttered.

Wishing for peace and harmony among her friends, Neytiri stepped in. "What do you need us to do, Jerryhandelman?" She asked him.

"We got to go back to the Tree. We'll fly the Samson over to the other shack." he said finally.

"What about this place?" Jake said, "can we seal it up or do we just leave it here?"

"Yeah, we could seal it up, but I have a better idea. Let's blow it up."

"Blow it up? Why?" Normspellman asked.

"Because it is not good for the Na'vi to come out here and mess around with this place. They could be killed or injured by some of the stuff here. Some of the equipment in this room is fairly dangerous to someone not accustomed to dealing with it. We can put a package of mine explosives in here and blow it up." he said. "That will take care of the problem once and for all."

They all went back outside. "We'll have to get back to the Tree and probably fly the Samson to the other shack site."

"Onward." Normspellman said, and they all trudged off back toward the Tree of Souls.

-SCENE BREAK-

When they got back to the Tree, the first thing Jerryhandelman did was to sit down on a root of the Tree. "Whew! That was quite a little bit of workout there, all that walking through the woods."

"Heh, that was nothing." Normspellman said. "We've had to do much longer hikes recently and we're starting to get accustomed to the physical demands of living here. You need to work out more, Jerry."

Neytiri wondered what "work out" meant and asked Normspellman. "It means running and moving around, to keep yourself in shape, which Jerry obviously needs." he finished, smiling at Jerryhandelman, who glared at him for a second.

"I'll get my second wind here in a few moments, I just need to rest a bit." he said, clearly tired.

"So, do we'll take the Samson up to the other shack site?" Normspellman asked.

"I got a better idea, lets take the Ikrans up there, we can scope things out, and if what Jerry needs is there, we might even be able to bring it back here on the return trip, if it's not too heavy or bulky." Jake said.

"No, it shouldn't be, but why do you want to fly the Ikrans up there?"

"To save fuel, if we can save it by not flying the Samsons around everywhere, then I am all for that." Jake said, finality in his tone.

The ikrans in question were roosting nearby, on the walls of the crater in which the Tree sat.

Jerryhandelman pointed to them. "We'll ride those?"

"Sure," Jake said, as he called his ikran down. Neytiri did likewise. The beasts came immediately and settled in next to their masters.

"Jerry, you want to ride with me or with Neytiri?" Jake asked.

"Uh, with Neytiri, I guess." Jerryhandelman muttered, looking at her Ikran, which gazed at him with a jaundiced look.

"It's very easy, Jerryhandelman," Neytiri said, "Eytukan will not hurt you, I won't let him hurt you. You just climb up on his back and hold on behind me and we will be fine."

Jerryhandelman looked at the Ikran, then her. "Just like that?" he said.

"Yes." she said, with a tone of exasperation, "just like that."

She got on first, made Tshaylu then helped him up onto the back of the Ikran. He was clearly very, very scared. Terrified, to be exact, but was hiding it well, considering the circumstances.

Jake went through a similar exercise with Normspellman. Jake looked at her, "Ready when you are!" he shouted.

She called to Eytukan and in a matter of moments, they were airborne.

The forest dropped away and soon they were soaring well above the jungle. She followed Jake, feeling free again, now that she was airborne and on her Ikran again. _It's still not like riding Seze, but it feels so good! _She thought as they flew up into the mountains.

"How are you doing back there?" she asked Jerryhandelman.

"Uh, just fine, I guess." he said, in a tone of voice that indicated he was anything but 'just fine' and would be very glad to be on solid ground again.

"It should not be too much longer!" she called out, smiling, enjoying the flight.

Many minutes later, the other shack came into view. It was situated in a little clearing near the edge of a steep cliff. There would be plenty of room for the Ikrans to land and rest while they got what they needed here.

They landed. Jerryhandelman couldn't get off the Ikran fast enough. "That was not fun." he muttered, "I feel like I want to puke right about now."

Neytiri laughed. "Jerryhandelman, you need to relax!"

"Woo! That was great!" Normspellman said, bounding off of Jake's ikran. "Can't wait to do that again!" he said. Jake came up behind him, smiling. "So far so good, did Jerry like the trip?"

"No, Jerry did not like the trip, he thought it was the most terrifying experience of his life and he doesn't like being referred to in the third person, either!" Jerryhandelman muttered.

"Well, we're here, let's see what's what." Jake concluded.

They all walked up to the door of the shack. It was sealed up, as Normspellman had said it was. This met with Jerryhandelman's satisfaction. "This is much better." he said.

They opened the door. Jerryhandelman turned to Neytiri. "You should probably wait out here. It will be a little crowded inside with me, Normspellman, and Jake."

She nodded her head, "As you wish, Jerryhandelman, I will wait here."

A few minutes later, and the three emerged with various pieces of equipment and things in their hands, which they set down on the ground next to the Ikrans. "First trip, we need to get a few more things." Jerryhandelman said, turning around.

A minute later, they came out again. "Now that we got what we need, it's just a matter of getting it to the Tree."

"You sure we need all this?" Jake asked, a bit dubiously.

"Yes, absolutely yes. We need all this, so I think we'll need the Samson after all, there is too much here to carry in one trip with the Ikran and it will be faster."

"Whatever you say, you're the man," Jake said, a faint tone of eye-rolling in his voice.

"But first, I need to take a leak." Jerryhandelman said.

"What is 'leak' Jerryhandelman?" Neytiri asked, mystified.

"Uh, it's dealing with a basic bodily function we Sky People have which you Na'vi also have to deal with from time to time and since there's no point in powering up the toilet just so I can use it, I'll go right over here, near the shack." he said as he walked over toward the edge of the cliff.

Jake and Normspellman followed him. "This I gotta see." Normspellman said.

"Yeah, whatever." Jerryhandelman said noncommittally as they rounded the corner of the shack. Neytiri followed dutifully until Jerryhandelman turned around and looked at her. "Except you, sorry Neytiri, you don't get to see this."

She was nonplussed, "Don't worry, it's just a guy thing and you don't need to take it personal or anything." Jake said, looking at her. She was a bit mollified, but only a bit. Did Jerryhandelman not trust her?

The three of them went around behind the shack. A few moments later, she heard Normspellman's voice:

"Goddamn, you were right. Jerry and the Pee-Of-Many-Colors!"

Then Jerryhandelman: "Yeah, and it still stings like a bitch when I piss."

Then Jake: "Multicolored raindrops going all the way down!"

A few moments later, they came back around from behind the shack.

"You are finished?" she looked down at Jerryhandelman.

"Yes." he said.

"Then you should call your flying machine up here to get you." she said, not looking at him.

-SCENE BREAK-

When they got back to the Tree of Souls, Jerryhandelman and the others were waiting for them. Neytiri and Jake dismounted off their Ikrans and walked over to the group.

Jerryhandelman was there with his people and Normspellman.

"Is everything ready here?" Jake asked as they approached.

"Yup. The equipment I got from the other shack is now in place and ready to go if needed. We did a test between Norm here and Maxpatel back at Hell's Gate and everything is up and running fine here and there, so basically everything on this end is ready to go. All we need to do is get everyone ready back on Earth and then we're a go."

"Good," Jake said, "so now what?"

"Remember the ruined link shack over that way?" he said, pointing off toward the direction of the shack where she had found Jake. Jake nodded. "Well, we're going to take care of that shack right now, while we have the time. I have sent for another Samson to bring out some of the mining explosives and detcord so we can take care of that problem once and for all. They will meet us over at the shack."

"So we'll fly over there or do we walk?"

"Let's walk, it will give us all some good exercise."

So, they set off toward the old link shack they just visited earlier, Jerryhandelman, Normspellman, she, and Jake.

-SCENE BREAK-

They arrived at the shack, still looking like they'd left it earlier, and they waited for the familiar sound of the Samson's rotors.

They didn't have to wait very long. Soon enough, the Samson showed up and landed near the shack. Jerryhandelman and Normspellman went over to it. They removed some things from it, talked to the pilot for a few moments and then it took off again and flew off toward the Tree of Souls.

"They're going to drop off some stuff at the Tree which will be transferred to the other Samson. It's for Scott and Tom. And then it's going back to your new Hometree."

Neytiri was confused again. "Why do they need these things?" she asked.

"You said you'll have a feast for us at your new Hometree?" Jerryhandelman said.

"Yes. Later on this evening." she answered.

"Then my friends and Norm will need some things there so they can partake of the festivities there. You'll understand once you see it."

"Oh," she said, not really understanding what he was talking about. "And now you will destroy this place?" she said, pointing to the shack.

"Yup. Norm, let's get to work." and with that, he and Normspellman picked up the things they had removed from the Samson and took them inside the shack. "You guys wait here until we're ready." Normspellman said as they disappeared into the shack.

"Not a problem." Jake said, looking at Neytiri. "We'll wait right here."

They heard Jerryhandelman and Normspellman talking from inside the shack, something about "detcord" and where to put the explosives they had brought. A minute or so later, Jerryhandelman and Normspellman emerged from the shed. Jerryhandelman was carrying a large spool of something in his hands, unrolling it as he came out of the shack.

He pointed toward the direction of the Tree. "We have to get enough distance between ourselves and the explosion, so we'll head back toward the Tree, since we have to go that way anyway."

They all started walked away from the shack. Neytiri came to a cluster of trees a little ways away from the shack, then stopped. "Is this far enough, Jerryhandelman?" she asked him.

He looked at her, then Jake, and they both smiled. "Uh, no, Neytiri. Farther."

"How much farther?" she said, getting a bit exasperated with him again.

"Just keep going." was his answer.

They walked further into the forest. She stopped after a bit and could still see the shack through the trees. "Is this far enough?" she said.

Jerryhandelman just waved his hand forward, unrolling whatever it was he had spooled on the spool. "Keep going."

"How much detcord do you have" Jake asked him.

"500 meters, at least. It should be more than enough."

"Damn," her mate said, "we'll be quite a ways back toward the Tree if you unroll all of it."

"That's the idea," Jerryhandelman said, unspooling cord as he talked, "I want to get as far away from that shack as we can."

They walked further. Neytiri stopped again but before she could say anything, Jake waved her on. "Keep going." was all he said.

She gave up at that point and decided to simply follow them until Jerryhandelman decided they were far enough from the shack.

Sometime later, his spool ran out. The cord he was unspooling fell out onto the ground. "This is as far as we can get and I think it is far enough." he said.

He stopped and turned around. He then took something out of his pack and attached it to the cord he had just finished unspooling.

"OK, the detonator is attached and ready to blow." He pointed to a low bank of earth nearby. "We'll go over there and lay down behind that embankment."

Everyone went over to the embankment. Jerryhandelman sat down, obviously tired.

"Give me a moment, guys, I need to rest." He said, with some effort.

"Too much 'exercise'?" Jake said, with a smile.

Jerryhandelman looked at him for a moment. "I just need a few moments to rest, is all. All this gallivanting around is beginning to catch up with me. I am not quite as young as I used to be, I guess."

He got up after a bit and picked up the detonator. He motioned to the ground. "You'll want to get down on the ground there. We should be far enough away, but there might be a little bit of debris falling this far away. I don't know."

"How much explosives did you use?" Jake asked him.

"Three packages. It should be more than enough. I want to make sure that thing is completely destroyed."

"I hope it isn't too much." Jake said, looking sideways at Jerryhandelman.

"It'll be fine." he replied.

Jake, Neytiri, and Normspellman then got on the ground behind the earthen embankment.

"Neytiri, you'll want to put your hands over your ears. This is going to be loud." he said, putting something from his pack over his head, covering his ears.

Jake and Normspellman put their hands over their ears. Neytiri dutifully followed.

"You guys ready?" Jerryhandelman asked them.

She could barely hear him, but could hear Jake say, "Yes."

"Here goes." Jerryhandelman said, pushing something on the detonator. "Fire in the hole!" he yelled.

The cord flashed into smoke and an instant or two later, the world around her exploded.

BOOOM!

The ground underneath her lurched, and she was thrown upwards more than a meter, her hands coming away from her head for a second or two before she landed, an earth-shattering roar filling her world. The jungle shook and the earth rolled. She watched in horrified fascination as trees all around them were bent and twisted by a great wind coming from the direction of the shack. She took her hands off her head, in horrified awe as a great, malignant-looking cloud arose from where the shack had been, an ugly, roiling mass of smoke and flames, rising up like a mushroom.

It climbed higher and higher. She almost didn't even notice the clumps of earth and bits of debris falling down around them until she saw little pieces of metal and what had obviously been part of the shack, but was now reduced to rubble falling down out of the sky.

They all got up and looked around at the devastation around them. This far away from the explosion, there was still a forest, but the jungle was clearly bruised and battered.

Looking toward the direction of the shack, they could only see trees blown down, burning debris everywhere, and an immense crater where the shack had been.

Neytiri turned to Jerryhandelman. "You have blown a great hole in our forest, Jerryhandelman. Did you realize you would do this with your explosives?"

He shrugged, then looked at her. "Uh, no, not like this. I knew it would be big, I just didn't realize it would be this big. Sorry."

Her annoyance with him came back. "You have killed many of Eywa's trees today, Jerryhandelman. I hope you're satisfied." and with that, she turned and walked toward the Tree of Souls. Jake gave a sidelong glance at Jerryhandelman before following Neytiri. A moment later, she heard Normspellman and Jerryhandelman following behind them.

"Was it something I said?" she heard Jerryhandelman say.

"Just keep walking." Jake answered.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: A Feast and a Physics Lesson, Not Necessarily In that Order

Their new Hometree was hustling and bustling with activity now that everyone was back from the Tree of Souls. There was still much to be done before the clan was fully settled in to their new home, but for now, that would wait.

Tonight, there would be a feast for Jerryhandelman and his friends who had come to help him.

Neytiri put aside her annoyance with Jerryhandelman over what he had done to the forest around the old link shack, at least for now. He had done what he thought was the right thing, but didn't realize the full consequences of what he had done until it was over. She wouldn't hold that against him, he was human, after all. He was right, the forest would grow back, eventually.

There was much activity around their new firepit. The cooks were hard at work preparing food for the feast tonight, she noted, realizing that she was getting hungry herself. Jake and some of the other hunters had gone out and brought in a talioang a couple hours ago and they were busy butchering it for the feast.

She walked up behind her mate as he was cutting off a large chunk of flesh, hacking at it with his knife. He was so engrossed in what he was doing he didn't see her sneak up behind him. A couple of the other hunters working on the corpse saw her, though. She raised her hand over her mouth to keep them from saying anything. They both smiled as they worked at cutting meat. They knew what she was about to do.

Her tail twitching with joy, she grabbed her mate's tail and yanked it playfully but not forcefully.

"Jesus Christ!" Jake yelped, swinging around, knife at the ready, prepared to attack whoever had been teasing him. Neytiri deftly jumped back, still smiling at him.

"Don't do that!" he muttered, "I could have killed you!" She smiled even more at that, the idea that her mate would have been able to use that knife against her when he still had much to learn. He turned back to the talioang. "What do you need?" he said, still a little miffed at her.

"Nothing, my love, I just wanted to see how things were going with the feast tonight."

"We've got it almost all cut up now. We're just finishing up with the major cuts now and then we'll start on the bones, getting the marrow out. You want to take this pile of meat over to the fire?" he said, as he put the cut he'd been hacking away at onto a pile of cut meat next to him, sitting on a bed of tanned yerik hides. That would also be how that pile would get to the fire from here, that and a fair amount of exertion on her part.

"Sure." she said, grabbing the knotted cords of made from strips of talioang hide and began to pull the pile of meat over to the fire. When she got there, she saw something interesting.

Jerryhandelman and his friends were setting something up a little bit away from the central gathering area. It looked like some kind of structure, but clearly was not designed to be permanent.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him, curious.

"This is a way for Tom and Scott and Norm to enjoy the party without having to wear exopacks all the time." he said. This thing is called a 'tent' in the language of the Skypeople." He pointed to the side of the structure. "See that machine? That is just a larger version of an exopack and what it does is take the air outside and make it safe to breathe inside the tent."

"And this?" she asked, pointing a part of the tent that jutted out from the side of the tent.

"That's what we call an 'airlock' and what it allows Tom and Scott to do is enter and leave the tent without contaminating the air inside the tent. So, they can eat the food your people are cooking for us without having to constantly take their exopacks on and off all the time."

Now she understood. "So they will eat their food inside this place and then will come out again when they're done and then will not need to take their masks off."

"That's the idea" Scottbellovin said.

"Speaking of the food, how's it coming?" Jerryhandelman asked her.

"We're starting to cook the main course right now. Would you like to come see?" she asked.

"Sure." he said, "Scott, Tom, you guys can finish setting up here, I'll be back in a few minutes."

"No prob, boss." Tomanderson said.

Neytiri wondered what a 'prob' was. It sounded like 'problem' but she wasn't sure. She thought she'd ask Jerryhandelman about it, then reconsidered. He'd probably tell her it was just more of the sarcasm the Geeks spoke to each other. She was beginning to wonder if this sarcasm was actually a different language from that of the rest of the Skypeople.

They arrived at the main firepit. The cooks were just beginning to start cooking the meat from the talioang. It would be fully cooked in a few more hours. She noticed Jerryhandelman had wandered over to a group of young hunters. They had returned earlier that afternoon with some of the food for the feast. He walked up to them, probably intending to introduce himself to them. Neytiri followed behind, mindful that Jerryhandelman still could not speak their language very well, even if he could understand it.

"This is Jerryhandelman, who is a friend of the Toruk Macto." she told them.

"Ah, we know of you, Jerryhandelman," the young woman leading the group said, "and we are feasting tonight in your honor. I am Peyral and this is K'anu'ey and Ke'aytopu, my friends." she said, indicating the two other young hunters with her. Jerryhandelman bowed his head. "I am Jerryhandelman of the Skypeople." He said in slow, carefully pronounced Na'vi.

"You speak our language?" Peyral asked, surprised.

"You remember that Jerryhandelman first came here to become One with the Great Mother?" Neytiri asked them. They remembered that. They were there when he first came to the Tree of Souls. "When the Great Mother took Jerryhandelman into Her and he become One with Her, one of the things She did to him was give him the ability to understand our speech. He cannot speak our tongue very well, but I and others have been helping him to learn."

"This is good." Peyral said in slow, careful English, "You will learn much when you can speak our language, Jerryhandelman." she concluded.

He motioned to the spear she was carrying. "May I look at that?" Peyral handed the spear over to him. It was taller than Peyral, almost as tall as Neytiri herself and it dwarfed Jerryhandelman quite easily. He hefted it in his hands. Neytiri was amazed that such a small man from her point of view could even hold a Na'vi spear, let alone lift it up and hold it aloft, above his head.

"This is a good spear," he said, "do you bring down many animals with it?" he asked Peyral.

"Some. We like to use arrows, mostly. They are better for bringing down the animal. We use spears mostly for finishing it off when we've brought it down. Why do you ask, Jerryhandelman?"

"I am just curious," he said, "one more question, do you throw this spear with your arm?"

"Yes. Of course we do. How else would we do it?"

Neytiri was somewhat dumfounded by that question. That had to be one of the stupidest questions she had ever heard a Skyperson ask, and clearly Jerryhandelman was anything but stupid.

"Is there some other way to throw a spear?" she asked him, wondering if these Geeks really knew what a spear was used for."

"Maybe." he said, mysteriously. "I have an idea." he said and with that walked away back toward the Samsons and the tent.

Neytiri and the others looked at each other. "What is going on?" K'anu'ey finally said.

"I don't know," Neytiri said after a long moment, "but I am sure we will find out soon enough."

-SCENE BREAK-

The afternoon sun was edging toward the horizon and soon it would wold be evening. The feast was about to get underway, Neytiri realized. She had to go get Jerryhandelman and his friends. She went to the tent they had put up earlier. Scottbellovin said Jerryhandelman was "over by the Samson" and sure enough, that is where she found him.

"The feast is about to begin." she said.

"Good." he said, "I am almost done." he finished.

He was working on something. It was some kind of wooden shaft, like a spear, but clearly not a spear. One end was strange and looked like it was bent backwards or something. The other end looked like it had a handle or was designed to be held. And there was a similar, smaller wooden shaft on the ground next to him. Clearly, he'd been busy these past two or three hours because obviously, he'd made both of these things.

"What are these?" she asked, pointing at them.

"I'll show you, and everyone else, in a few minutes." he said, picking up both of them. "Let's go back to your Hometree. I want to show you all something."

Intrigued, she followed behind him. He was up to something, that she was sure of, but what he was doing, she wasn't sure at all. They got Scottbellovin and Tomanderson and headed over to Hometree. They arrived back at Hometree a couple minutes later. Jake was there, along with everybody else. The feast was about to begin, but Jerryhandelman had something to show them all.

"Jake. Who is the best hunter here?" Jerryhandelman asked him.

"That would be M'eykut, the senior hunter." Jake said, indicating a Na'vi sitting next to the fire. He got up. "Yes." he asked, "is there a problem, Toruk Macto?"

"No," Jake said, "Jerryhandelman here just wanted to know who the best hunter among us is. I told him you are."

"I need a spear and an arrow." Jerryhandelman said. Neytiri gave him one of her arrows. "Can I take the feathers off?" he asked her.

"Yes." she said, knowing they could be put back on fairly quickly. He removed them. "I also need a spear." he asked the crowd. Peyral gave him her spear. "I need everyone to come over this way to this clearing over there. I want to show you all something. Everyone got up from around the firepit and followed him. This would be interesting, Neytiri thought.

They all got to the clearing and stopped. Jerryhandelman motioned to M'eykut to come forward. He did. Jerryhandelman set down her arrow and the wooden things he'd brought with him down on the ground next to him. He gave the spear to M'eykut.

Everyone was watching in rapt attention. "Neytiri, if you would be so kind as to translate my words to the crowd, since I don't think I can do that quite yet." Jerryhandelman said.

She looked down at him. "I will do this, Jerryhandelman."

"Good." he said. He picked up the arrow. "I bet I can throw this arrow farther that M'eykut can throw that spear he's holding, even with the flight feathers removed." he said, finishing with a flourish.

Everyone got a good laugh at that, after some back-and-forth between her and Jerryhandelman about what a "bet" was (once she understood the concept, she smiled inwardly at his promise to spend a week "after this is all over" keeping the common area of Hometree clean and neat, a task most Na'vi didn't particularly enjoy, and further at his boastful assertion that she and Jake would "treat me to a fine dinner someday when this is all over" at an eating place he knew of in a Skypeople city called Paris) and how it meant that the loser would do what the winner wanted.

He motioned to the hunter next to him, a very strong, able hunter, was M'eykut, very much stronger than Jerryhandelman was, to step up to the line they had drawn in the ground. He did so.

"Throw the spear as hard as you can." Jerryhandelman said, and Neytiri translated.

M'eykut backed up a few paces, ran forward, and launched the spear off toward the far edge of the clearing, stopping right at the line in the ground as he sent the spear on its journey.

It sailed off into the distance and moments later, impaled itself in the ground, fifty paces or so away, in the middle of the clearing.

"Very good." Jerryhandelman said, "but I can do better."

He placed the arrow in the end of the smaller wooden thing he'd made earlier, stepped up to the line, then backed off a few paces and ran forward, just like M'eykut had done earlier, only he held the arrow in the wooden thing and just as he got to the line, hurled his arm forward, launching the arrow into space.

It sailed off into the air. It flew, hard and fast, and in moments, it hit the ground, clearly many, many paces farther than the spear M'eykut had thrown earlier had landed.

Everyone was silent for a few moments. "How did he do that?" M'eykut asked, the question on everyone's mind at that moment.

"It's called an atlatl," Jerryhandelman said, showing M'eykut the one he was holding. "our ancestors used these when we hunted and lived in ways similar to the Na'vi, but that was a very, very long time ago for we humans." He pointed to the larger one on the ground. "Get another spear, and I'll show you how to use that."

M'eykut complied, and another spear was in his hand moments later. "You put it in the notch here," Jerryhandelman said, pointing to the end of the wooden thing, "and what this does is act like an extension of your arm."

"And then makes you be able to throw the spear farther because it's like your arm is longer!" Neytiri finished, comprehension hitting her like a rampaging herd of Yerik.

"Yes, exactly." Jerryhandelman said, looking at her with a newfound sense of respect. "That is exactly how it works. We Skypeople call this 'mechanical advantage' and it is how this atlatl works."

He gestured to M'eykut. "The one you're holding is Na'vi-sized. Give it a try."

M'eykut complied, his eagerness showing. The spear sailed off into the distance and landed farther into the woods than even the arrow Jerryhandelman had thrown.

Everyone was impressed. "Imagine how you'll do hunting game with one of these?" Jerryhandelman asked Neytiri.

"How do you make these?" she asked, at once curious and fascinated.

"I'll leave that to you to figure out. It's called 'reverse engineering' among the Skypeople and what that means is that I have given you a prototype, made entirely from local materials, except the twine I used to attach the launcher to the main body of the atlatl. You can figure out how to build more of them, I am quite certain. I won't tell you how to do everything." he finished. He sat down, very clearly the effort to do what he had just done had taken a lot out of him.

She and M'eykut were both thinking the same thing. "We must make more of these." They both said at the same moment.

"Good." Jerryhandelman said, "my work here is done and Jake, that means I win. You owe me a dinner at the Parisian restaurant of my choice. Not all physics is high-tech, you know."

Jake smiled, "Yep. You win. We'll treat you to dinner someday, at a restaurant in Paris, someday, when this is all over, right?"

"Something like that." Jerryhandelman said.

"And speaking of dinner, the cooks are done and the food is ready. Time to party down!" Jake answered.

Neytiri wondered what "party down" meant, but didn't bother to ask. She knew by now that both her mate and Jerryhandelman spoke in Sarcasm whenever they wanted to exclude anyone else from the conversation, especially her.

She sighed inwardly as they all headed back to Hometree. She would have to have a talk with Jake sometime about this.

-SCENE BREAK-

The food was piled high around the firepit and everybody was hungry. It was time to feast.

Everyone gathered around the firepit. The elders of the clan got to eat first. Once they had taken their fill, Jake and Neytiri along with the senior hunters and other clan leaders got to eat and finally, everyone else had a chance to dig in.

Jerryhandelman put a large helping of food on a big, flat, and deep metal tray he had brought with him. "I'll take this back to the tent and eat with Tom and Scott and Norm." he said, turning around.

"We will see you guys in a little while, then?" Jake asked.

"Yup. We'll eat up and when we're done, we'll come out and join the party."

They all sat down and started eating. The food was excellent, Neytiri thought as she bit into a hunk of flesh and swallowed the meat. Just right, she thought. Jake thought so too, from the look on his face as he ate his food. They both smiled at the same moment. Everyone sat down and enjoyed the feast and the food started to disappear as everyone dug in.

Jake turned to, Atsu'ney, the senior cook, who had organized and prepared this feast they were enjoying. "Atsu'ney, you've outdone yourself with this feast. The food is excellent!" he said.

Atsu'ney smiled warmly at Jake. "Why thank you, Toruk Macto, but it is my honor to provide you and your friends with this feast," she said, looking around, "and I think we all are happy your friends are helping us to stop the bad Sky People."

"Speaking of …" Jake muttered, " I'd better go over and check on our guests."

He came back a few minutes later with the three of them.

Jerryhandelman looked at Neytiri when they got to the firepit. "I have an announcement to make. I'll need you to translate for me."

She nodded her head. "I will be glad to, Jerryhandelman."

He stepped up to the firepit. Normspellman and both Jerryhandelman's friends sat down with everyone else. He nodded to them, "I told Norm earlier what I am about to tell you all." he said.

"It has been almost thirty of our years since the first of our race came here to this world. I was a much younger man then, and I remember well the day the first of us ventured out into space to come here to Pandora. Much has changed since then. And now, there will be another change coming to Pandora. The Sky People you refer to as "dreamwalkers" will no longer come among you in their dreamwalker bodies. I tell you now, that the time of the dreamwalkers has come to an end, for the immediate future and possibly forever."

The crowd gasped at this news when Neytiri finished translating. She was stunned herself at his last sentence. There was silence for several long moments as everyone absorbed the news. Mo'at finally spoke.

"No more dreamwalkers? Why is this, Jerryhandelman?"

"Because the machines the dreamwalkers like Norm and others use to control their dreamwalker bodies are needed for another purpose. I need to use all of them so that your Great Mother will be able to link her collective mind with my machines back on our world."

"All of the link machines?" Jake asked. "You need all of them, but why?"

"Because in order to maximize the bandwidth and make sure the signal gets from here to Earth, we need to link all the machines in series and we can't do that and let the avatar drivers use the machines at the same time. I'll be sending the signal from the Tree of Souls over to Hell's Gate and from there, I'll boost it so it can get all the way to Earth with maximum bandwidth. I'd rather prefer to have more bandwidth than less."

"Oh," her mate said after mulling over that for a moment, "that makes sense."

"What is this 'bandwidth' of which you speak, Jerryhandelman?" Neytiri asked. "You have spoken of it before."

"I can't really explain it to you without confusing you even further. It's something I need to make as big as possible so that this plan will work, and this is the only way to do it." he said.

"And this means no dreamwalkers anymore?" she asked.

"Yes. Depending on how long we need to have Eywa stay in control of the network back home, it might be forever. We shall see."

This news was stunning to Neytiri, and others in the clan. For as long as she could remember, there had always been Dreamwalkers here, on their world. Grace Augustine was the Dreamwalker that Neytiri and the Omaticaya had gotten closest too, but now she was with the Great Mother. No more Dreamwalkers? This might take some getting used to.

"So how did the avatar drivers at Hell's Gate take the news?" Jake asked Jerryhandelman.

"They were nonplussed, to say the least, but they took it in stride. Perhaps someday we will be able to bring them back, but not anytime soon."

"And what of their Dreamwalker bodies?" Neytiri wanted to know.

"Those will die, I am afraid. We can't keep their Avatars alive by ourselves because keeping them alive so that they can be used again will take up too much of our limited resources. So, the day is coming soon when there will be no more Avatars."

"You Sky People have been here since before I was born." Neytiri continued. "I can't remember a time when you were not here and there were no Dreamwalkers. This is a strange thing, that there might never again be more dreamwalkers among us."

Jerryhandelman was silent for a moment or two. "Let me ask you a question, Neytiri."

She nodded. "Go ahead, Jerryhandelman."

"Do I look like I'm made of air when you are talking to me?" he asked.

She laughed. "No, of course not."

He pointed to Normspellman, "Does Norm look like he's made out of clouds when you talk to him?"

"No, of course he doesn't," she said, chuckling, "why do you ask?"

"If I don't look like I'm made of air and Norm doesn't look like he's made of clouds, then why in the name of your Great Mother do you call us the 'Sky People'?"

"Because you first came here in your great ships, coming down from out of the sky, many years ago, when I was much younger myself." her mother said. "So, we chose to call you the Sky People."

"Is this a problem for you?" Neytiri asked him.

"We call you the Na'vi, because that is the name you call yourselves." he said. "Why don't you guys return the favor and call us 'human' because that is the name we call ourselves." he finished.

"I will try to remember that." Neytiri said, sighing a little as she said so, "But we have called you the Sky People for as long as I can remember. It will not be easy to change that."

"I understand that. We've been here since before you were born, Neytiri. I know where you're coming from. Some of us call you the Cat People, because you look and act a little bit like cats to some of us."

"What are cats?" Neytiri asked him.

"They are small, furry animals some of us keep as pets. I have one back home. So when we first saw pictures of your people, some of us thought you looked like cats to us. So we called you the blue-skinned Cat People of Pandora."

"And this was why you called me Catwoman?" Neytiri smiled, remembering the first time she and Jake had met this man, this human, "because I looked like a cat to you?"

"Uh, yeah, something like that." he muttered.

"Well then, you can call me Catwoman if you want, you said she was a mythical heroine of your people, and I like being compared to someone who fights for justice and what's right."

"Uh, yeah, whatever." he said noncommittally.

He turned to Jake. "The food was excellent, by the way. Tell the cooks we loved it."

"You can tell them yourselves, they're sitting right over there." Jake said, pointing.

Atsu'ney and the other cooks stood up. "We are glad you enjoyed our feast. We are glad you are helping us to stop the bad Sky People, er, humans from hurting us ever again." She and the others sat down again.

"There still a little food left over, and you may have as much as you'd like. But if you have a few minutes, I'd like to know a little bit more about this plan, if you can share." Jake asked, as he sat down as well.

"Sure," Jerryhandelman said, looking at his friends, "what do you want to know?"

"I'm curious about how you're planning on 'taking control' of the network back on Earth, mostly." Jake said.

"Well, most of that is too technical for me to try to explain to you, but basically, it's us doing what we know best to attack the network and Eywa using the knowledge I gave herself to grab control of the central servers, computers, and other machines on the network. By ourselves, we couldn't do this, by herself, she can't do this, but working together, we'll both hit them so hard they won't know what hit them. It will be the old one-two punch, in other words."

"And when we hit them, they will go down, that we can assure you." Scottbellovin said. "And once they're down and your Great Mother has control of the network, you're in the driver's seat, Jake."

Her mate smiled uneasily. "I would love to be there, in that seat, just as long as you're there with me in the co-pilot's seat, Jerry." he finished.

"No prob on that score," Jerryhandelman said, "like I told you before, I have no problem helping you out when it comes time to sit down and negotiate the peace treaty."

"That is what I need to hear, Jerry." Jake said after a moment. "So now, what's next with the whole plan?" he asked.

"Well, tomorrow morning, I take Scott and Tom and Norm back to Hell's Gate along with your wife," he motioned to Neytiri, "because the only time I will have to show her your video logs is tomorrow morning. We'll all be too busy for anything like that."

Neytiri looked at her mate for a moment, then to Jerryhandelman. "And how long will this take?" she asked.

"Maybe a couple hours or so, if that. I'll be sending these two," he motioned to Tomanderson and Scottbellovin, "back to Earth tomorrow morning first thing, then we'll sit down and you, me, Norm, and probably also Max will watch all of Jake's video logs. After that, I will be going home sometime probably tomorrow afternoon. The next time you will hear from me will be in about three or four days or so, perhaps a little bit later. How soon can you get all the Olo'eyktans and Tsahiks to Hell's Gate?"

Jake looked to Neytiri for a moment, "We could get them all here in about a day's notice, but we'd prefer two or three days, if you can afford it. They all have the radios and know the code phrase we gave them, but I don't want to have them suddenly have to drop everything to come to Hell's Gate. I would like to give them as much lead time as possible."

"I'll see what I can do." Jerryhandelman said. "I need to get the final things in place back home to carry out the plan. Once that is done, I will call Max, and he'll call you. That will be your cue to call up all the Olo'eyktans and Tsahiks and tell them to get to Hell's Gate. If need be, we can use the Samsons to fly some of those who live farther out from Hell's Gate to get them in faster."

"We might do that," Neytiri said, after a moment's consideration, "but we would like for as many as possible to come in on their own Ikrans or Direhorses. How long will we all be on your world?"

"Maybe a week or so, perhaps a couple weeks. We shall see, but they should be prepared to stay there for a possibly lengthy period. Once we have control of the network, then it will be a matter of convincing the Earth governments to listen to us and you. That shouldn't take too long." He smiled at that last bit.

"And when is the target date for the takeover?" Jake asked.

"That's still up in the air, but you can figure it will be probably about a week from now, maybe a week and a half, depending on when we get everything in place."

"So we can tell everyone to be ready to get to Hell's Gate in about a week?" Neytiri asked.

"Yes, that will work. Tell them about a week from now. I may have to change that by a few days, so tell them to be ready at a moment's notice."

"Now that we have that all sorted out, I have a question for you Jerry." Jake said.

"Shoot." Jerryhandelman said and Neytiri smiled inwardly, realizing that this was more of Jerryhandelman's Sarcasm.

"You worked with and taught my brother Tom for what, five, six years?"

"Almost four years as a student of mine, and three years studying for this assignment. So a total of almost seven years, actually. He was truly my best student, that's no fooling, Jake. I remember the first time I ever laid eyes on him. It was twelve, almost thirteen years ago now." He paused for a moment, then looked at Neytiri, "He was a little bit younger than you are in human years, Neytiri. Anyway, he shows up in my lab one day and I'm wondering who this punk kid is in my lab. I figure he's some gamer or fanboy or something. Turns out he's Tom Sully and didn't I know who he was and he wants to study under me and get his doctorate with me as his major professor. I thought to myself, 'no way this punk is going to make it through the program' but I was wrong. I think I saw a lot of myself in him when I was his age. I didn't think much of him at first, I figured he'd wash out in the first few months, but he stuck it through and over the years, we became more than teacher and student. We became friends. I miss him, Jake."

"Did he ever talk about me or mention me at all?"

"Yeah, we talked about you a little bit and he mentioned you a few times. He was pretty damn proud of you. He would tell me about you, 'my brother the kick-ass Marine' is the way he put it. And when you were in the VA hospital, he went to visit you."

"I remember that well, he dropped in a few times. Told me he was sorry about what had happened to me. I told him it was nothing to be sorry about, that things happen in war and one of those things is people get injured."

"Part of the reason Tom took this job, aside from what it would do for his career, was so he could pay for your surgery. I don't imagine you knew that."

Jake looked at Jerryhandelman for a long moment. "No, actually I didn't know that. He was going to pay for my surgery?"

"Yup. It was my idea, actually. I said, 'Tom, if you take this job, you'll make more than enough money to pay for your brother's surgery so he can get his legs back' and he was floored by that. 'Really?' he said, and I told him 'Yes, really.' and after that, he was more than sold on getting into the avatar program and coming out here. He said it was the one thing he could do for you."

Jake was silent for a long moment, then looked at Neytiri, and then back to Jerryhandelman.

"Thank you, Jerry." he finally said, "you've given me my brother back in a way. I remember now that he told me when he visited me at the hospital one of those time that he was going to take care of me. Now, thanks to you, I know what he meant by that. Thank you."

"You're welcome. Your brother was a special guy. I miss him."

Scottbellovin spoke up. "Yeah, he was my best student too. He had one class with me, but man, did he ever ace that class!"

"Ace?" Neytiri asked, "what does that mean?"

"It means he did very, very well in Scott's class?" her mate answered, looking at Scottbellovin.

"Yup. He was good people." Scottbellovin said. He looked at Jerryhandelman, "Do you remember the weekly departmental meetings when he was a student? Those were a lot of fun."

"Oh yeah, we used to call those the Tom and Jerry show." Jerryhandelman said.

Jake laughed for a moment or two, "That's a good one! Why'd you call them that?"

"Because one of the things about those meetings was the students were supposed to give weekly updates on their theses projects, along with their major professors, and your brother and Jerry here would go into this hilarious routine in which each would pretend to be the other one." Tomanderson answered, with a wide grin on his face, "and they would get the whole room laughing."

"Yeah," Jerryhandelman said, "I'd pretend to be Tom and he'd pretend to be me. He'd get up and say, "'I, the famous Dr. Gerald Handelman, would like to introduce my protege and successor, Tom Sully' and then I would get up and give his weekly update, pretending to be him, and we'd start wisecracking and joking back and forth and pretty soon, we'd have everyone in a barrel of laughs."

Jake smiled again, "That must have been a real hoot. You guys sure sound like you had a lot of fun together."

"That we did. And with that, I think I will retire for the evening. We'll see you all tomorrow." Jerryhandelman said as he, Normspellman, and the other two got up.

"But before we go, we'll take some of the leftover food." Normspellman said.

"Help yourself." Jake answered, then added, "I got one more quick question for you."

"OK," Jerryhandelman said, "what is it?"

"You said when you first got here that we were in danger. What did you mean by that?"

Jerryhandelman paused for a moment or two, then collected his thoughts. "Jake, how many Na'vi are in the Omaticaya clan?"

Her mate thought for a moment. "Let me think, probably 250 or 300 or so. We lost a lot when the old Hometree fell and during the War, but that is probably a good ballpark figure. Why do you want to know?"

"Because that is roughly the number of humans who are smart enough to figure out how to get from Earth to Pandora and back again in the same way I and my two colleagues did in order to get me to Pandora and back, that's why. I know almost all of them on a first-name basis, but I am not at all sure about the loyalties of all of them. Some of them may have loyalties to the RDA and may very well be trying to figure out a way to get here instantly rather than six years of cryo in a Venture Star."

"In other words, if you can figure out how to get here, someone else can, and probably will eventually, right?" Normspellman asked, sounding somewhat concerned.

"Yeah, something like that, if we can do it, someone else can too, and if that person is working directly for the RDA, then you're dead meat."

"Which means we have to stop them before they follow too far in your footsteps," her mate said, thinking out loud, "so they can't get to us."

"That's the name of the game." Jerryhandelman said. "This is something we have been trying to figure out for years. About eight years ago, Dr. Mullen in Chicago determined that the Effect that bears my name should allow for macroscopic teleportation, at least theoretically. That was one of the possibilities of my theory, but no one, myself included, had ever been able to figure out exactly how, even though a lot of us have been trying to suss out all the ramifications of the Handelman Effect ever since I figured out what it was, what quantum entanglement was all about. Four years ago, Dr. Ruderich and Dr. Laveau working independently of each other demonstrated that my theory really does allow for macroscopic teleportation. The hard part was figuring out exactly how to do it, and that's when the race was on, to be the first to figure out how to actually accomplish macroscopic teleportation, to actually move an object as complex and large as a human being from one part of the Universe to another instantly.

"The intellectual breakthrough that led to me being here right now came about because of serendipity, plain dumb luck, and me making a mental connection between two seemingly unrelated facts, but that doesn't mean that no one else on Earth couldn't have figured it all out. In retrospect, it all seems so simple, the answer was right there in front of us, we just didn't see it until I made a mental connection about something, suggested it to one of my colleagues, who then had another idea, which led eventually to me being here."

"How likely do you think that someone else could figure it out?" Normspellman asked.

"Not very likely now, but in a year, two years? Maybe a lot more likely. I've noticed there isn't much in the way of published research in this field in the past six months or so. It's like it's dried up. Kind of like the physics world right before World War II."

"But, we pull this off, and it won't matter if someone else figures it out, because it'll be too late." Normspellman concluded.

"Yup." Jerryhandelman said, and with that, they all departed to their tent.

-SCENE BREAK-

For once, it was actually quiet as Jake and Neytiri settled in to their private alcove in their new home. "The calm before the storm." Jake said, looking at her, their thoughts as one. She smiled as they got in their hammock.

"Tomorrow will be a good day, my love." she said, holding his hand. "I will see these 'video logs' of which you and Jerryhandelman have spoken, and we will send him and his friends off."

"Yeah," her mate grunted noncommittally, "and then the shit hits the fan a few days after that."

She frowned, "Is this Sarcasm you're speaking?"

"Uh, yeah, sorry my dear, just a little of Jerry's attitude rubbing off on me."

"Well, my Jake, you need to remember that I don't understand this Sarcasm and it feels like I'm being excluded from your conversation whenever you're talking to him and I don't like that one bit." she finished.

He looked down. "Sorry, I'll try not to do that, it's just that when I start talking to him, I feel almost like I'm back on Earth, in the Marine barracks, hanging out with the other Marines in my unit, shooting the breeze, figuring out where we'll be going next, what our next set of orders will be, that sort of thing."

She smiled again. "There you go again, my love, talking about things I don't understand, but I will accept it, for now, because it is who you are."

"Yeah, whatever, it's just that Jerry reminds me of Tom in so many ways. He's a highfalutin' smartass, but damn, he knows his shit and when he talks, it's almost like I can hear Tom in his voice. Jerry is so much like Tommy was in so many ways, it's eerie." her mate's voice started cracking.

She looked carefully at him. His eyes were misting with unshed tears. She wrapped her arms around him. "You miss your brother, but perhaps Jerryhandelman can bring him back to you, like you said to him earlier this evening."

"Yeah, that's right." Jake said, trying not to cry. "I never thought I would say this, but I really miss my brother. I miss him so much, Neytiri."

She felt the tears coming to her eyes too as she voiced the thought at the front of her mind. "And I miss my sister Sylwanin so very much, Jake. I miss her smile, her laughter, her joy at being alive, her wisdom. She is gone now, your brother is gone, but we have each other, my Jake."

Her mate was crying softly. "Yes. Thank the Great Mother for that. We have each other."

They held each other embracing their shared grief at the loss of a beloved sibling as the night deepened and the nocturnal creatures of the Pandoran jungle stirred and went on about their business.

They made Tshaylu with each other again and showed each other their pain. She saw Jake's memories of his brother, how Jake felt jealous one Christmas day when Tommy got a new computer, how proud he was of his brother when his brother got accepted into Jerryhandelman's program, his utter sadness upon learning his brother was dead. She showed him her memories of that awful day when Quaritch and his killers had murdered her sister and the others, how they had shot up the school, of Grace struggling to protect them, watching her sister die right in front of her as she held Sylwanin in her arms and cried and cried.

They held each other through the night and into the morning.

-SCENE BREAK-

The next morning, she awoke to a different sensation that before she'd ever awoken with Jake. They had never before spent the night in Tshaylu. He was still asleep, but she could feel his mind dreaming.

He was afraid, she could sense sensations and feelings coming from him that suggested he was afraid she would be taken from him someday, that he would lose her somehow. She saw fleeting images from his mind of her screaming and disappearing as he tried to reach out to her, to save her.

She held him him her arms, clutched him, really as she spoke softly to him.

"Do not be afraid, my Jake. I will always be here, with you, my love." she said, tears coming to her eyes as she realized now what the Sky People meant when they talked about a "soul mate" and how she loved Jake more than anything else in the world.

He was her mate in every sense of the word, and she would do whatever it took to protect him.

She held him in her arms until he finally stirred, and their day began.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: In Which Neytiri Sees Jake In A Different Light and Learns a Few Things About Superconductivity And How To Play Chess

The Samson was waiting. Jake and Neytiri watched as Jerryhandelman and his friends walked over to it and got on board, along with Normspellman. "See you when you get back." Jake said. Neytiri kissed her mate and walked over to the Samson along with the others.

"Norm wants me to leave the tent up," Jerryhandelman said, pointing, "because he will want to use it later on."

She nodded. "This is good, Jerryhandelman."

She got on the Samson. Jerryhandelman followed, getting into the cargo area, along with her and Normspellman. His two friends were in the passenger area, with the pilot. Everyone got in and put on their seat restraints as the Samson powered up and took off.

Jerryhandelman motioned to the headset on the seat next to her. "Put that on and move the switch to the middle position," he said, pointing to a small, plastic box attached to the wires leading to the headset. "If we all switch to the middle, we'll have our own little private comm channel back here."

She wasn't sure what a 'comm channel' was but got the idea that she, Normspellman, and Jerryhandelman could talk to and hear each other without the pilot or the other two hearing them. She liked that idea.

Normspellman put his headset on, as did she, remembering the first time she'd flown in one of these machines. She found the comm link for the headset and attached it to her throat.

"You guys hear me?" Jerryhandelman asked her and Normspellman. They both nodded. "You're coming in five by five, Jerry." Normspellman said. His headset was now connected in some way to his expopack.

"Good." Jerryhandelman said, "because there's something I'd like to tell you two that I don't want the others to hear, at least at the moment. Norm, when we get to Hell's Gate and after we watch Jake's video logs, there's something you need to know about Trudy. I know you and her were close, but there's something she probably never told you about. It is something that I think you need to know."

Normspellman looked stunned. He was silent for several seconds as the jungle below them flew by. Again, she marveled at how fast they were going. This was so much faster than flying her Ikran! She admitted to herself that this was actually quite fun, flying this way.

Neytiri was also intrigued by what Jerryhandelman had to say about Trudychacon. Jake had told her of Trudychacon's bravery, how she had helped him, Normspellman, and Graceaugustine escape from the clutches of Quaritch at Hell's Gate and how she had attacked the other flying machines. He'd even told her that Normspellman and Trudychacon were mates, or would have been, had she survived.

"You knew about Trudy and me? How'd you know that?" Normspellman finally said.

"It's a long story and when we get to Hell's Gate, you'll get the abridged version, but for now, know this. Me and Trudy went back a ways and I was responsible for her being here. That's all you need to know now. As I say, once we finish watching the video logs, then I'll tell you, Neytiri, and Max the whole story, or at least the thumbnail sketch of it."

Normspellman looked at him strangely for a moment or two. "Dude, you really know how to mess with a guy's mind." he muttered.

"That's what I like about you, Norm. You always cut to the chase." Jerryhandelman said, smiling.

Neytiri wondered exactly what a "chase" was, but figured she'd find out eventually. She was sure if she asked Jerryhandelman he would say it was more Sarcasm and if she'd probed further, he'd have told her to forget it.

She stayed silent as the jungle flew by below them. Soon, she could see Hell's Gate. She was about to learn something about Jake, and a few other things, she surmised.

-SCENE BREAK-

When they got to Hell's Gate, both of Jerryhandelman's friends made their goodbyes. "We're done here and you'll see both of us on Earth, when this whole thing goes down." Scottbellovin said as they went to another area of Hell's Gate. Jerryhandelman followed behind them. "I'll be back in a little bit," he said. "You guys wait here and as soon as I've sent Tom and Scott on their way, I shall return.

True to his word, he returned some time later. It was long enough that Maxpatel and Normspellman had time to play a game of "cards" while they waited.

They all sat down in one of the big "conference rooms" somewhere inside Hell's Gate. Jerryhandelman ushered everyone in and they took their places around a table. He pointed to a machine at one end of the room and then to a square-shaped screen of some kind at the end.

"We'll be playing Jake's video logs on that machine and they will be projected over here," he said, pointing at the square-shaped white screen.

"Projected?" Neytiri asked, wondering what that meant.

"You'll find out in a moment here." he answered, getting up to work the machine at the other end of the room. "We have all of Jake's video logs here, in the order he recorded them, and so now you'll get to see for yourself what Jake was doing during those three months he trained with you, while he was in his human form. They will show you a side of him you probably never realized existed and they show how both you and this world changed Jake, for the better. I can just about pinpoint down to the exact day when Jake fell in love with you, Neytiri, just from watching these videos."

She nodded to him as they gathered around the table, looking at the screen.

"Here we go." He said, turning the machine one.

The next hour and a half or so passed by quickly, she decided afterward. They watched all of Jake's video logs, from the very first one to the last. They were, as Jerryhandelman said, very informative. From "Well here I am, doing science," to "Neytiri calls me sxkawng a lot, it means 'moron'" to "Neytiri says I am ready to undergo the final test of becoming a man" all the way to "This is Jake Sully, signing off" she learned many things about Jake, things she truly had not known before.

Jerryhandelman and Maxpatel and Normspellman were there to explain some of the things he talked about on those videos, things she didn't understand, but was beginning to learn more about because of Jerryhandelman.

Mostly, she saw how Jake changed over the course of 87 video logs and three months. By the end, she could tell he was truly one of the People, that his true soul was coming to the fore. "And you're a big part of that, Neytiri. You gave Jake a reason to live, a reason to fight, and a reason to leave his human body behind and become Na'vi permanently." Jerryhandelman told her, at the end. "It was because of you he stood up to the RDA and led your people to victory. You gave him that reason to fight on. He wouldn't be here today if it hadn't been for you."

She felt complete drained, after the last video log ended and the screen went blank. There was Jake, yes her Jake, on that screen and in the past hour she had watched him change to become the man she loved with all her heart and soul. It was as if he had changed in front of her.

She felt tears misting in her eyes. Now, she could truly See her Jake as the man he was meant to be. That he had to come all the way to her world to realize that truth now meant something more to her than anything else in the world.

The Great Mother had brought her Jake to this world. This she was sure of with every fiber of her being. He was here because of Eywa and they were together because of Eywa. It was Eywa who had intended for her to be with him and him to be with her, and this truth would never be washed away, destroyed, or ever forgotten, not so long as she had life in her body.

She turned to the men at the table. "Thank you." was all she could trust herself to say.

"You're welcome, Neytiri." Jerryhandelman said, as the others nodded in agreement.

Jerryhandelman paused for a moment. "I guess you can say it's my way of giving something back to you, not just about Jake, but about who you are. You're responsible for changing Jake, for bringing the leader that was inside him out of him, out into the world. Now do you see why I cried after I watched those videos back home?"

She nodded. "It was because you did not know Jake Sully either, but you learned about him when you watched those videos and he became real to you."

"Yes. And in a weird way, Neytiri, it's because of those videos I learned a few things about you, things I had not known before."

She was intrigued about this, to say the least. "How so?"

"Well, Neytiri, it's like this. I feel like I've known you a long time, almost since you were a baby, really. You know, I practically watched you grow up, because of Grace Augustine."

"Really?" now she was truly curious.

"Yeah. Grace and her team first made contact with the Omaticaya clan when you were a very little girl, barely able to toddle around. It took years, but eventually Grace won your mother and father over, and they let her interact with the clan, and of course, build her school. She would tell me about you and your sister. She would send me pictures of you and the other students at her school. Both of you were her favorite students, and in many ways, you were like daughters to her. She'd tell me about how you were doing, how fast you were learning. She even joked that if there was a way to do it, she would have sent you and your sister to my university, so you could become the first Na'vi college students ever, she thought you were that smart. Grace loved you and this world so much. She would have done anything, even dying, if it could have saved this world and you."

Neytiri was overwhelmed by this revelation, to say the least. She had come to care very much about Graceaugustine, to love her in a way, not as much as family, but only as a good, kind, caring, teacher. Grace had thought of her and Sylwanin as her foster daughters. She had truly cared about them that much? Neytiri was at a loss for words at this.

After a few moments, she finally spoke. "Your people have been here on this world since before I was born, Jerryhandelman, Normspellman, Maxpatel. For as long as I can remember, Graceaugustine was part of my life. I never truly knew that I was also a big part of her life. I thank you for this knowledge, Jerryhandelman. You have helped me to understand Graceaugstine better."

"And now that you both have opened up to each other through these videos, we found another video you might want to watch, Neytiri," Maxpatel said, stepping in to the conversation for the first time since Jake's video logs were finished, "and it's not a very long video, but you'll find it interesting, to say the least. Do you want to watch it?" he asked.

"Yes. What is this video about?" She asked him.

He pointed to Jerryhandelman. "He just said he felt like he's known you a long time, yet you know very little about our friend Jerry here. So, we thought we'd give you a chance to get to know a little bit about him."

He looked at Jerryhandelman. "We dug up your acceptance speech when you got the Nobel Prize, and we thought we'd show it to Neytiri. Let's see what she thinks about it after she's watched it."

Jerryhandelman put his head in his hands and looked like he wanted to crawl under the table and hide. "God, you guys have that thing on file?" He looked at Neytiri for a moment. "And you want to show it to her?"

Maxpatel was smiling. "Why yes, of course we do, Jerry." He looked at Normspellman who was also smiling. "It would be so appropriate after you've shown Neytiri her mate's video logs."

Jerryhandelman shrugged, "Whatever. Go ahead. Play it. I don't care." which was obviously not true since he apparently was very embarrassed, for some reason.

Maxpatel did something to the machine and a different video came up on the screen. It showed a human, standing in front of a wooden stand. He was saying something about the "Nobel Prize in Physics for the year 2131" and how it was being award to "Dr. Gerald Handelman" for his "groundbreaking work in the field of superstring symmetry and quantum entanglement."

The man stepped aside and another man came up to the front. He looked familiar to her, then it struck her. This was Jerryhandelman! He was obviously much younger, but it was clearly him. He stood before another man, dressed differently than the others, obviously this other man was very important. This man then put something around Jerryhandelman's neck, some sort of large, round, disk, held by a cloth strap. There was much clapping and applause and Jerryhandelman bowed to the other man and in various directions.

She pointed at the screen. "That's you, Jerryhandelman!"

"Uh, yeah, when I was a lot younger." he mumbled.

He then stepped to the wooden structure and started speaking.

"Thank you to Your Majesty, and the Nobel Committee for this important award." he said. She noticed that his eyes seemed vacant, almost like he really wasn't behind them. "I am very grateful that my work has been recognized at this venue and for this prize I have received. I thank the Committee for giving me this award. I hope that my theory will continue to provide rich rewards for and further avenues of research for many years to come and that it might help us to understand more things about the world around us and how it really works. Uh, I want to thank my parents, Richard and Caroline, for giving me support over the years and my mentor, Grace Augustine, for being there for me when it really counted and uh, I want to thank everyone who has helped me along the way, I don't want to forget Dr. Ian Woon. And um, I want to thank all of you on the Committee who voted for me. I appreciate it. And, ah, I want to thank Washington University for giving me a great place to work and find answers to life's enduring questions. Thank you very much and that's all, folks!"

There was laughing on the video as he sat down. The camera pulled back, and Neytiri saw someone sitting in the audience, someone she recognized after a moment.

It was Grace! A very much younger version of Graceaugustine, but Graceaugustine nonetheless.

"That's Grace!" was all Neytiri could say at the moment.

Jerryhandelman, the older version of himself, was apparently nonplussed at seeing the younger version of himself on the video. He had his head in his hands the whole time.

Neytiri was not sure what she was supposed to learn from this video. She noticed Maxpatel and Normspellman were both chuckling when the video ended.

"What was that all about?" she asked them.

"That was when Jerry here got the Nobel Prize in Physics twenty-odd years ago. Normspellman said, turning to Jerryhandelman. "And are the rumors true about you being stoned out of your gourd when you were up there giving that speech?"

Jerryhandelman sighed. "Yes, Norm, I was stoned out of my gourd. I kept having to remind myself who I was talking to, that I was about to meet the fucking King of Sweden and he was about to give me the friggin' Nobel Prize in Physics."

"Who is this 'King of Sweden'" Neytiri wanted to know.

"Uh, he's like the Olo'eyktan of the Swedes, which are a clan of Sky People." Normspellman answered. "Anyway, we thought we'd play that old clip just so you can see Jerry when he lets his hair hang down, when he knew how to party."

"Whatever." Jerryhandelman finally said.

"What is 'stoned out of my gourd'?" Neytiri wanted to know.

"Uh, it just means that I was using a substance that altered my mind and my perception of reality when I gave that speech." Jerryhandelman muttered.

"It was like he was really, really drunk." Maxpatel said, still smiling at Jerryhandelman. Clearly he and Normspellman were having fun at Jerryhandelman's expense, which made Jerryhandelman very annoyed and embarrassed.

"And what is this 'Nobel Prize' you won?" she wanted to know.

"Uh, every year, a bunch of people in Sweden decide that humans who have done something important in the past year in various specialized fields, like physics, or chemistry, or economics should get a prize in that area. I got the one for Physics that year and got to meet the King of Sweden and some other people. And I got a bunch of money, in addition to the medallion the King put around my neck, which you saw in that video." He finished, not really looking in any particular direction.

"Now," Normspellman said, continuing, "you said you had something to tell us about Trudy. What is it you wanted to tell us?"

Jerryhandelman gathered his thoughts, then spoke. "Trudy was part of the Resistance." he said finally, after a moment or two.

Maxpatel and Normspellman were stunned.

"She was with your group?" Normspellman asked after a moment's silence.

"Yes. And I was the one who recruited her to come out here." Jerryhandelman said.

"You knew Trudy? Goddamn, there was a lot I never knew about her, but I never would have figured that she was one of your people." Normspellman said, again sounding stunned.

"Yes. I knew her, for probably about twelve or fifteen years or so." Jerryhandelman said.

"How did you know her?" Maxpatel wanted to know.

"Wargames, believe it or not." Jerryhandelman said.

"She was in to that too? I really never knew the real Trudy Chacon." Normspellman said.

"Yes. And that is how I met her. I was out at a conference in LA about twelve or whatever number of years it's been and when the conference was winding down, I decided to take in a wargamer's confab going on across town. I used to go to a lot more of those than I do now these days, but back then, I would not have missed an opportunity to crash a party like that for anything. I got to talking to a few of the attendees, and when I said who I was, they wanted to play a round or two of Battlefield Angel, one of my old games. So, I figured what the hell. Trudy was one of the players, and after a few rounds, it came down to just me and her and she finally kicked my ass and won. We played another game, while the others watched and she kicked my ass again, that bitch. She beat me at my own goddamn game, too, not just twice, but three times!"

Normspellman was smiling. "So you met your match, eh?"

"Yes, something like that. I had to know just how she could have done so well against me. We get to talking after the game and after most everyone had drifted on into the night. I find out she's an embittered ex-Army 'copter pilot, who got out of the service after a couple tours over in Nigeria and she finds out that I am not just a physics geek, that I do actually play wargames too, even the ones I write and create, especially the ones I write and create."

"That must have been interesting," Maxpatel said, after a while, "getting to know Trudy through wargames."

"Yeah, you could say that. She was like a lot of people in the service, she played those games on cardboard gameboards and online and finally got a chance to do it for real and she didn't like what she saw. She was angry, alright, angry at the world and mostly angry at the RDA for what they were doing in Nigeria, among other things."

"So that is how you recruited her?" Normspellman asked him.

"Yeah, more or less. We became friends, even though the only thing we really had in common was wargames. I mean, here she was, an angry young woman and me, the Nobel-prize winning physics geek who messes around with computers, who would have thought possible it that the two of us would ever meet and get along with each other, but we did, in a manner of speaking, even if most of our interactions were online, over the phone, and very rarely, face-to-face, when I had a chance to get out to LA for whatever reason."

"So how'd you get her out here?" Normspellman said, obviously very curious about Trudy's background.

"The RDA was on the lookout for vets to join the SecOps group out here, and when I learned they were looking for people, I told her I could pull a few strings, and get her in the program. I told her a little bit about what was going on out here and asked her if she was interested. She was, very interested, I mean."

"You convinced Trudychacon to come here to our world?" Neytiri asked him, finally understanding what the conversation was going toward.

"Yes, and here is the thing you all need to know. She got accepted into the program, and before she came out here, I sat her down and gave her the whole rundown on what was really going on out here and about the Resistance. I then asked her if she wanted to help us out by providing information on what was going on out here. I told her it would be a great way to fight back at the RDA, to undermine them, and to do some good out here. She was all for it, all the way."

"And so she came out here. Did anyone else know she was with you?" Normspellman asked.

"The only person out here who knew Trudy's real allegiance was Grace, and that was because I told her about Trudy when Trudy shipped out here. Trudy wanted to know if she was working for Quaritch or me and Grace. I told her, 'on paper, you're still with Quaritch, you look like one of his SecOps goons, you talk like one, but you report directly back to me and me alone.' and she was fine with that. She knew about and used our secret comm link many times and gave me lots of good, solid intel about SecOps, how it was organized, what they were doing, all the good stuff."

"She was your spy, and only Grace knew about her." Normspellman concluded. "Did she know about Grace?"

"Not exactly. I told Trudy that Grace was a sympathizer, but not much more than that. Trudy was my operative all the way, and it had to be that way because of her position. She was officially with SecOps, but she flew you guys around on all the science sorties. I had to give her a primer on how to deal with science geeks, what to expect, that sort of thing. But, since she was part of SecOps, she was in both worlds, and she liked it that way."

He turned to Neytiri. "Neytiri, there is something you need to know about Trudy. It is something you will probably find surprising, but in a good way, do you want to hear it?"

"Yes," she said, realize that both Maxpatel and Normspellman were also eager to hear this new piece of information about their fallen comrade-in-arms.

He paused for a moment, then gathered his thoughts. "One of the things I told her before she came out here, when I was telling her about the Resistance and who she'd really be working for was this. I said, 'Trudy, that bastard Quaritch and his goons will tell you the Na'vi are a bunch of wild, angry savages but don't you believe it for one moment. He'll tell you to kill any and all you see and that they're a threat to us. That's bullshit. We can learn a lot from them.' is what I told her."

"Anything else?" Normspellman asked, hanging on every word.

"Yes, as a matter of fact. I gave her a direct order, as her 'case officer' as it were that she was not to kill any Na'vi while out here, ever." His eyes glistened as he spoke and he had to pause for a moment before going on, "I made her promise me she would never kill any Na'vi under any circumstances at all and she did, she promised me she would do that."

He looked to Neytiri again, "When the Sky People attacked Hometree, she was part of the attack force. But she pulled out and never fired her missiles on your Hometree, even when Quaritch ordered all the pilots to do so. She did it because it was the right thing to do and because I told her not to kill your people. She did what I told her to do, and I am damn proud of that woman. I trained her well and she followed my orders. I told her never to murder your people and that is exactly what she did." He was almost in tears at this last part.

Neytiri put her hand on his shoulder. "Jerryhandelman, I thank you for this knowledge about our friend Trudychacon." She looked at Normspellman, and he was obviously fighting back tears. "You have shown me that the Sky People, er, the humans, are not bad, like some of the people we have dealt with over the years here. Thank you."

"You're welcome," Jerryhandelman said, after a moment or two, "I thought you would like to know that about Trudy."

She smiled. "Trudychacon was a brave woman. She fought against the other humans for us and died for us."

"Yeah," Maxpatel said, "she did that and other stuff too, I am guessing."

Normspellman was curious. So was Neytiri.

"What do you mean, Max?" Normspellman asked.

"I can answer that, Norm." Jerryhandelman said. "How and why do you suppose Trudy broke you, Grace, and Jake out of the detention center?"

"You were behind that?" Normspellman said, incredulous.

"Yes. She called me in a panic, after you three were locked up. She wanted to know what to do. She wanted to bust in that cell and break you guys out, guns blazing. That never would have worked, and I knew she would do it if I didn't do something to help her. I told her, 'bust them out of the cell, yes, but do it the right way.' and then of course she wanted to know how to do that. Since she'd been demoted to serving food to those residing in the cells, she had the perfect cover. I told her exactly what to do to break in, that she had to get you, Max, to help out, and I told her exactly how to cover her tracks so Quaritch could never figure out how she'd gotten you guys out."

"You did that?" Maxpatel said, "I always wondered how she was able to access the security desk and what she was doing there. She was covering her tracks?"

"Yes. Absolutely. Like I say, Trudy was a real trooper and she did exactly what I told her to do. I told her how to get into the security camera logs, how to access the security desk and get into the door log, and then how to erase the incriminating evidence so no one would ever know or figure out how it was done or who did it."

"I always wondered who was behind that." Maxpatel said, "and was it you who told her to kill the guard?"

"She killed the guard?" Jerryhandelman asked, a bit incredulous.

"Yup," Maxpatel said after a moment's pause, "right after we busted Norm, Grace, and Jake out of the cell, she and Norm dragged him into the cell, she rolled him over and slashed his throat open with her knife. She damn near decapitated him, to be exact."

"I had told her she could leave no witnesses, electronic or otherwise. That's why she killed him and put his body in your cell, Norm." Jerryhandelman said, mulling over what Maxpatel had just told him.

"Damn, she was quite a woman!" Maxpatel said.

"She killed a Sky Person, a human, I mean?" Neytiri asked, not really understanding the drift of the conversation.

"Yes. I'll put this in as simple terms as I can, Neytiri. You remember what happened after your Hometree fell?"

"Yes, Jerryhandelman, of course I do. Jake tried to apologize to me, but I rejected him and told him to leave me and never come back. Why is this important to you?"

"Because after you did that, he was yanked out of the machine that let him link to his dreamwalker body and he, Grace, and Norm here were locked away in a room, guarded by a human, to be put on the next shuttle up to our ship in orbit around this world. In other words, Jake, your mate, was about to sent away from this world forever. It was Trudychacon who broke him, Norm, and Grace out of that room and got them to freedom so Jake could tame the Toruk and return to you. If it had not been for Trudy, you would never have seen Jake ever again. And it was because of me, because of my knowledge of the machines here, the computers, and the security systems, and how they work, that I was able to tell Trudy exactly how defeat those machines and get your mate out of that room. If it had not been for me and Trudy, you would never have seen Jake ever again and your people would have been wiped out completely by Quaritch. Now do you understand?"

She looked at him for a long moment. "You saved all of us by this one action?"

"Yes. Trudy possibly could have gotten Jake and the others out by herself, but she didn't know how to do it other that march in there, guns blazing. That almost certainly would have been suicidal if she'd tried it. That's why she called me on our communications link, because she didn't know what to do. I told her what to do, and I told her how to do it so no one would ever know how it was done. I had to do that to protect Trudy and Max here if something went wrong."

Maxpatel entered the conversation again. "Now it makes sense." he said finally.

"What makes sense?" Normspellman said.

"Quaritch's goons came by the science division, right before they launched their attack on the Tree of Souls, in fact right after I called you guys to warn you about the attack. They wanted to find out who had broken you guys out. Quaritch was sure it was an inside job, that Trudy had help, but they could never prove it. His goons were yelling at us about who had access to the security cells and how they were going to figure out who'd helped Trudy in getting you guys out. Now I see that because Jerry told Trudy how to cover her tracks, they could never pin anything on me or anyone else."

Neytiri was silent for a moment, pondering this. "You said there was a guard at this room where Jake and the others were being held. You told Trudychacon to kill this man?"

"Yes, on both counts. What I told her was that she was to leave no witnesses behind. This man could have identified Trudy as the one who had freed Jake and the others and he could have possible said that it was Max who helped Trudy. To prevent that possibility, I told her she had to kill anyone who got in the way or who might be able to identify her or anyone else. That's why she killed him. He might have been able to tell Quartich that it was Max who had helped Trudy."

"And kill him she did." Normspellman said. "We dragged him into the cell, he was still groggy from when she'd hit him, she rolled him over, took out her SecOps knife, and slit his throat. Never paused once, never said a thing, she just killed him, right then, right there."

"Did this man have a family? A mate?" Neytiri asked.

"I have no idea and frankly, I don't care." Jerryhandelman said with finality.

"But he might have someone on your world who will miss him now that he's dead." Neytiri said, realizing that she cared about someone she had never met, someone who was now dead and gone. Killing someone was something that should never be done unless absolutely necessary. Did Jerryhandelman not understand this?

She asked him that and he told her that this man had been simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, whatever that meant. "Why does it matter to you?"

"Because he was a person too. You don't kill someone unless you have no choice." she said.

"Hey, it's war." he responded, "You do what you have to do."

"Are you a killer?" she asked him.

"Nope. I have never killed anyone and I'll never kill anyone so long as I live. I'm a pacifist by my own nature." he said.

"Pacifist?" she asked.

"It means he doesn't like killing other people, but in this case, he had someone else do his killing for him." Maxpatel said, looking at Jerryhandelman in a strange way.

"Yes, something like that." Jerryhandelman said. "Neytiri, it makes no sense to you, but this is the way things are in war. This man could have caused a lot of trouble for Max, and by extension, Jake if he had lived. Trudy killed him because he worked for a bunch of murderers. He knew what he was getting into when he came out here and he paid with his life. Good riddance, I say."

She was silent for a while, thinking about this turn of the conversation.

"You don't kill, but you find it easy to tell others to kill for you." she finally concluded.

"Yes. If it is necessary. If there had been a way to avoid any deaths, I would have done that too. But there was not, until now. If this plan succeeds, there will be no more killing, no more wars between us and most importantly, no more misunderstandings. This is what I want."

"This is good," she said, "but have you learned nothing at all about our Great Mother since you have come here?" she asked him.

"Yeah, I have learned that she works in very mysterious ways." he said.

"What is meant by that?" she asked him.

"Well, it's like this. About a week or so, after your Hometree fell down, I started having these strange dreams, dreams where I would be running through the jungle, running away from pursuing Samsons, screaming as my world was destroyed. It was right after Jake must have returned to you and probably a few days before your people tried to save Grace."

"It was our Great Mother, reaching out to you." she said.

"Yes, it was that, I think. I didn't know what these dreams meant, but they kept coming back until Jake defeated the RDA here. Things were confusing, I didn't know what to do, until I saw Jake's report about the battle, what had led up to it, and other stuff. I knew then I had to do something to stop this madness. That's when I reached out to a couple colleagues and we started figuring some things out. That's when we decided to try getting me here to help you."

"This was the journeying directly to our world from your world?" she asked.

"Yes. We had no idea it would work until I tried it that first time."

"You mean, you never tested it?" Normspellman asked, incredulous.

"No, not really. Once we figured out how to do this, we tested it on a banana, and sent it from one side of my lab to the other." he answered.

"Banana?" She asked him.

"Never mind, it is a kind of fruit. We then tested it on an apple, and sent it to another part of the city where my lab is and that worked. We then sent my cat through it, and she came out fine at the other end of my lab. So we knew it worked, or at least were fairly certain. There was no time to thoroughly test everything. I made my calculations and got in the machine the next thing I know, here I am, thirty-some kilometers south of here. Up until then, those of us who have been doing this kind of research had never been able to do anything but move very, very tiny little bits of stuff from one side of a lab to the other. Me and my two colleagues figured out how do it with a human, or a Na'vi."

She looked at him with new eyes. "You are truly a brave man, Jerryhandelman." she said.

"Yeah, well it had to be done." he said, with certainty in his voice. "But then of course I had to 'travel through the eye of Eywa' to complete the first part of my mission here, which scared the hell out of me, almost as much as getting in the machine back in my lab to get here in the first place."

"What was it like, in there with Eywa?" Normspellman wanted to know. All three of them were watching him intently.

He looked around for a moment. "It was like I was home. I was at peace. Eywa was with me and I was with her. I was with Grace, your sister, Sylwanin, and it was like I could feel Eywa talking to me instead of hearing her. I showed her some things, she showed me some things and then she cleaved me in two and 'told' me it was time to leave, to go back out into the world and complete the mission. But I didn't want to go. It was so good in there. She had to kick me back out into the world. After she copied me, it felt like my soul was split in two, but I know this was what she needed. She needed me and she got me when I went in to her. It was something I had to do."

"And I am glad you did it." she said, smiling. "You have done very good for us, but I want to know something, if you can tell me?"

"Sure," he said, "ask away."

"Why is this Un-ob-tan-ium so valuable to your people?

He sighed, then asked Max if the "magnetic display was set up in the Physics lab. Maxpatel assured him that it was. "Go get it." Jerryhandelman said, looking right at Neytiri when he said this.

Maxpatel excused himself and returned a minute or so later, pushing a large table. He entered the room, pushing the table up to Jerryhandelman.

Jerryhandelman picked up something from the side of the table. "Neytiri, I want to show you something here." he said, motioning toward the table.

The object he had picked up was a small, glass tube or something like that. It had some kind of black dust in it. He spread it around the table and then did something to the underside of the table. Suddenly, the black dust organized itself into a series of arc-shaped bands.

"Neytiri, do these shapes remind you of something you have seen around here, something made of stone, perhaps?"

She looked very hard at the table, then it hit her. "This looks like the Sacred Arches!" she exclaimed.

"Yes, and that is because they are born from the same mechanism, something called "magnetism." he said. "It is related to something called "electricity" and we humans have learned most of its secrets.

"And this has to do with this Unobtainium how," she asked.

"Electricity and magnetism are basically two faces of the same thing. We call it the 'electromagnetic force' and what Unobtainium lets us do is use electricity a lot more efficiently. That way, we can get more use out of what we have and not lose most of it to resistance and other losses."

"I don't understand." she said after a moment's pause. "What is 'resistance'?"

"Neytiri, let me tell you about a wonderful place we physicists like to call "Theory" and after I tell you all about it, you might understand a bit better what I am talking about."

"Go on." she nodded to him.

"In this place called "Theory" there is peace and joy and happiness everywhere. Everything is perfect, everyone is happy, there is no war, strife, anger, and everything works perfectly the first time. Nothing ever breaks down, no one ever gets sick, nothing ever goes wrong, and everything is just perfect. It's what we physicists like to imagine a place called 'Heaven' is like."

"Sounds like paradise." Normspellman said after a moment. Neytiri decided she would like to visit this "Theory" place. It sounded good to her.

Jerryhandelman continued. "In Theory, when we do our experiments, everything works perfectly and we never lose any experiments to system crashes, data loss, etc., and in Theory, we can use all the electricity we could ever need because there is no such thing as resistance there. It is a perfect world. Earth is about as far from Theory as you can get and still be in the same Universe. Pandora is probably a lot closer to Theory that anywhere else in the Universe."

"But you can't ever go to Theory?" she asked him.

"Nope. We can only imagine what it looks like. But with Unobtainium, we can make our world be a little bit like Theory, and that is why Unobtainium is so very valuable to us. It offers us a glimpse of perfection in our tired old real world."

She smiled at that. "You are such a strange man, Jerryhandelman. Jake understands you, but I cannot understand who you are. This confuses me."

"You want to understand me? Why?" he asked her.

"I want to understand how you think. You are of the Geek Clan and the Geek Clan will save us, so you say. I just want to understand how you will do that." she finished.

He looked at her for a long moment, then at Maxpatel and then Normspellman.

"You want to understand how I think. Let me ask you this. We had to teach your people what the word "lie" means, correct?"

"Yes," she said, an expression of unease rolling across her fingers at the memory of what Grace had told her and the other young Na'vi students what "lying" was. She had not liked that lesson one bit. Telling someone a deliberate untruth, keeping the truth from them even though they had the right to know what the truth was. This was not Eywa's way.

He looked at her again, with those blue eyes that looked like they could penetrate right through her soul. "Neytiri, I am lying right now, I want you to know."

She was taken aback. "Here, to me, to us?" she waved her hand around the room.

"No, not to you or Norm, but to the people who built this place. They think I am one of them. They think I am on their side. I am not. I am making them believe that I am on their side and that I will never, ever turn against them. That is not the truth, but see, they don't need to know the truth about what I am doing right here, right now. They don't have the right to know that truth because what they're doing is wrong and I intend to stop them."

"By 'out-thinking' them?" she said, recalling the first time she and Jake had met this man.

"Exactly. In order to defeat these people, you have to think like them, act like them, and be like them. On the outside, that is what I am to them." He pointed to his chest. "They don't know what is in here, in my heart and they will never know that until it is too late to do anything about it. I have been very, very careful to hide what is inside my heart from them. I have to lie to them and to others until what I have set in to motion here is complete because they can never, ever know the truth about me. If they did, they would kill me.

"I can out-think them because I am very, very good at thinking. I am a hell of a lot smarter than the people who built this place. I can think just like them because I am one of them. You can't out-think them and believe me, Neytiri, this kind of thinking is insane. You have to be a little insane to out-think these people and by the grace of Eywa, I hope you never, ever have to think like this. All this lying, this deception, this trickery, is insane and if it was up to me, I would never have brought it anywhere near you or your world. I have to do this because it is the only way to stop these evil people. I am doing this to protect you from this kind of thinking, and believe me, I didn't want to bring this insanity anywhere near you or your people. When I say to let me do the thinking, it's because I am trying to protect you, your people, and your world from the rest of us."

He said this last in a very tired tone. She noticed his hands were shaking a bit. She took one of his hands in hers and looked him in the eye.

"Yes. This is insanity, but I am glad you are doing it and I know Jake is too. He does not know how to think the way you do, even if he understands you better than I do."

"Believe me, Neytiri, when I say this. There are some parts of this plan that are between me and your Great Mother. Some of this stuff you do not need to know and you will never know if I have anything to say about it. I am doing this to protect you. Believe me, you don't want to know about some of what I am doing to save you and Jake and this world."

"We thank you for this, even if I cannot understand how you think, Jerryhandelman." she concluded after a moment's pause.

"You really want to understand a little bit about how I think, how I will defeat the bad people who built this place?"

She nodded.

He looked to Normspellman. "You brought your chess set out here, right?"

"Sure." Normspellman said.

Jerryhandelman turned to look at Neytiri again. His eyes never left hers. "You still owe me that game. Go and get your chess set, if you would please, and we'll show Neytiri here how Geeks think."

Normspellman got up. "I'll go to my quarters, be back in a minute."

"This 'chess' this is a game?" she asked Jerryhandelman, remembering what he had said to her yesterday at the Tree of Souls.

"Yes. Norm and I will play a quick game for you and maybe you will then understand a little bit better how I think and what I am doing to save you and this world from our insanity."

Normspellman returned a minute or so later. He had a small box with him.

He sat down next to Jerryhandelman and opened the box. There were various black and white objects in the box. They separated the objects into two piles, the black pieces in one and the white in another. Jerryhandelman took a flat board from the bottom of the box and set it on the table. It was made of squares of alternating black and white.

They arrayed the objects on different sides of the board and in a few moments, she saw that all the little black pieces were arrayed on one row, the little white pieces on the other end, and behind each row, the other pieces.

"This is a chess board and these are the pieces." Jerryhandelman said, pointing to the board. "The little pieces on the front row are called Pawns. They can only move forward one square at a time. These pieces at the end are called Rooks. They move up and down the rows and columns in a straight line. The next ones in are called Knights," he said, pointing to pieces that looked like the heads of a Direhorse, "and they move in a little bit different way. Then next in are the Bishops and they move diagonally, like this," he said, showing her something on the board, "and then you have your King and Queen. The Queen is the most powerful piece because she can move both like a Rook and a Bishop and the King can only move one square at a time. The object is to protect your King while attacking your opponent, taking his pieces off the board, until you have cornered his King. The game is over at that point. It's called Checkmate."

After the explanation was all done, he nodded to Normspellman. "You ready?" Normspellman said yes, and the game started.

Afterward, Neytiri was not really sure what she was seeing, but it was engrossing. Normspellman moved a piece, Jerryhandelman moved a piece, then Normspellman responded by moving another piece, and so on, all the while there was bantering back and forth. Normspellman said something about Jerryhandelman having "gotten better" at the game and Jerryhandelman responded that he'd "been practicing" since their last game. Then pieces started flying off the board and before she knew it, Normspellman had only three pieces left on the board, one Pawn, a Bishop, and his King, and Jerryhandelman had five pieces left. And just like that, it was over. "Checkmate." Jerryhandelman declared and Normspellman laid his King piece over.

"Did you follow much of that?" Jerryhandelman asked her.

"Some of it." she said. "But a lot of it was hard to understand."

"See, the objective of Chess is to outmaneuver your opponent. You need to think ahead, anticipate his next move, your next move, and how he'll likely respond, and basically out-think him. That's what I am trying to do to stop the people who built this place. Only I am not entirely sure how many pieces I have, how many pieces they have, whether and how loyal all of my pieces are to me or theirs are to them, whether all my pieces will be ready when the time comes to use them, whether my opponents know what's going on and are ready to stop me, whether I can really stop them for good, and if I lose this game, we all lose. Now do you see why I am a little tired and stressed out?"

She could only nod. It was starting to make more sense to her, how this man Jerryhandelman thought and why it was a very, very good thing he was on her side.

"Care for another game?" Normspellman said, grumbling at his loss.

"Nah, I need to go finish up the reconfiguring of the link machines with Max and then head home." With that, he got up and departed with Max, but not before taking Neytiri's hand again.

"Neytiri, it is almost over. A few more days, maybe a week or so, and it will be over. Just trust me and when I get back, be ready for the next part of this. One of the pilots will fly you and Norm back out to your new Hometree."

"Thank you for all that you are doing for us, Jerryhandelman." she could only say.

And then he and Maxpatel left the room.

It was just her and Normspellman. She looked at the chess board.

"Normspellman, can you show me how to play this game you call Chess?"

He smiled. "Sure."

And they both sat down at the table. There was much for her to learn, so she might as well start by learning how to play this game that was so important to Jerryhandelman and the Geeks.

-SCENE BREAK-

The clan was now fully moved in to their new Hometree. Neytiri decided that she liked this new home of theirs, even if it was not quite as big as their old home, it was plenty big enough for the Omaticaya, given that their numbers were now reduced.

_And the people who are responsible for that will pay_, she concluded, a feeling of bitterness washing over her heart. The Sky People who came here to take, to steal, to kill, would pay for what they did. Jerryhandelman was her chosen instrument of revenge for this purpose, she had come to realize, and this realization made her feel happy.

She and her mate looked out over the central area of their new home, as the morning sun rose over their new home and the clan began its day. She smiled at him and took his hand. "Should we see about breakfast, my love?" he asked her. They had been back at Hometree for two days now, since Jerryhandelman had left and they were waiting word from him. _Soon_, she thought, and this plan of his would be realized.

They went down the central spiral into the main area of their Hometree. She could see the tent Jerryhandelman had set up and Normspellman was using while he and the pilot of the Samson stayed here. Since the clan was now settled in, Normspellman had indicated he'd be going back to the human base at Hell's Gate. The tent would stay, if and when he came back, he could use it. It was ever more comfortable for him to use than sleeping in the Samson.

She wondered where Normspellman was. Her mate had the same question as she did as they looked around and asked for him. He was at the Samson, and not at the tent, where he'd been sleeping.

He came striding up from the Samson a moment later and found them.

"Jake, Neytiri, I just got off the radio with Max. He needs us three back at Hell's Gate right now. He'll explain when we get there."

"Right now?" Jake said, after exchanges glances with Neytiri, "is Jerry back?"

"Max couldn't say over the radio, Jake, but that's a pretty safe guess."

Her mate sighed. "Alright, Neytiri, go tell your mother we're heading to Hell's Gate and we'll try to be back later today, if we can. We'll take the Samson." He headed over to the Samson while Normspellman went to get the pilot.

Neytiri found her mother and told her what was going on.

"Come back to us when you can," her mother said, she had grown accustomed to keeping the clan going in their absence and she knew they would be gone for a while when they journeyed to the world of the Sky People. _Humans_, Neytiri corrected herself, they call themselves humans.

Normspellman found the pilot and the three of them went to the Samson where Jake was already seated.

-SCENE BREAK-

They got back to Hell's Gate and were quickly ushered in. Jerryhandelman was waiting for them inside.

"Jake, Neytiri," he said to them by way of greeting.

"So, what's up?" Jake asked him.

"The op's been compromised, Jake. That's what is up."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: In Which The Fecal Matter Impacts Against The Rotating Elements of the Ventilation Unit (And We Make A Trip To the Homeworld of the Sky People)

"Shit," was all Jake could say, "how bad?"

"We're not sure, but from what information I am getting, they're on to us, at least they seem to be aware that something is up. How soon can you get the others here for the next phase?"

Jake looked at Neytiri for a moment, then back to Jerryhandelman. "You're still going to go through with it? Even though they're on to you? Are you sure that's wise?"

"We have to, Jake. We have enough false-flag ops going, diversions, fake ops, that sort of thing, that they'll never be able to figure out what is real and what isn't in time to stop it, I hope. I am convinced that we have enough pieces in place to go forward with the plan, therefore I am moving up my timetable so instead of next week, Operation Payback starts in two days. How soon can you get the others here?" he asked again, this time sounding more strained that before.

"I don't know, maybe a day, a couple days." Jake muttered, not happy with this turn of events.

"Jerryhandelman, can you tell me what this means?" Neytiri wanted to know.

"The bad people whom I am trying to defeat are now aware that something is about to happen and they are going to try to stop it from happening, unless we strike first." he said curtly, turning to Jake. "You have 24 hours, Jake. Get on the horn and start calling your people. Get them here so we can go forward with the plan."

Her mate was silent for a moment, then he came to a decision. "Whatever you say. You're the boss." He turned to Neytiri, "Now it is our turn. Let's get on the radio and tell everyone it is time."

She nodded. They had work to do.

-SCENE BREAK-

Surprisingly, it was fairly easy to get everyone on the line and aware of what was going on. Each of the Olo'eyktans had a radio Jake had given him (and her, in the case of the Eastern Sea Ikran Clan leader) and a 'code phrase' Jake had told them, which meant that it was time to come to Hell's Gate to start the next phase of the plan.

Everyone would be there tomorrow.

As for now, she and Jake had one last evening before the madness began, a final evening's peace before Jerryhandelman went to war against his own people on their behalf.

She snuggled next to Jake in the hammock as the evening wore down and Hometree's occupants settled in for the night.

"My Jake, are you nervous?" she asked him, stroking his chest with her fingers."

"Yes, actually. I hope Jerry knows what he is doing." he said after a moment.

"You are afraid?" she wondered.

"Well, if the operation has been compromised, then hell yes, I am nervous. I just hope Jerry has all his ducks in a row and everything will fall in to place.

"Ducks?" she looked at him, smiling, "is this more of the Sarcasm you and Jerryhandelman seem so fond of?"

He smiled back at her, "Yeah, something like that. I just hope Jerry can pull this thing off. If anyone can do it, he can. I am convinced of that." he finished.

"We must trust that Eywa that she chose Jerryhandelman for a reason. I believe he will do what is necessary to save us from the bad people. I know it in my heart." she responded.

"And with that, we should get some sleep." he muttered.

"But first, my love, you must satisfy certain urges I have been having lately," she smiled, as her fingers wandered down his chest, toward his groin.

"Ah, what the hell." he said, "a little nookie before the shit hits the fan, what's the harm?"

And so, they mated again, as the night settled upon their Hometree and the Pandoran jungle's nocturnal creatures began their 'day' under the glow of Polyphemous.

-SCENE BREAK-

Hell's Gate seemed looked much the same when they returned the next morning, but something was different. This day would be a day to remember, she realized.

_In a few hours, we'll be on the human's home world_, she thought, with a rising sense of excitement in her belly. Soon, they would be on the world that had produced Jake, Maxpatel, and Jerryhandelman and there the fight for her people's future would happen.

_It can't happen soon enough_, she thought.

When everyone was there, they all assembled in a large room in a different part of Hell's Gate. Evidently this was a place for the humans to repair their machines, as there were a number of such machines around this place, some had been taken apart. Others were in various states of disrepair and/or nonfunctional.

"Yes, this is the main garage facility at Hell's Gate." Jerryhandelman remarked as she and the others looked around the room. "It's where they fixed their machines."

Over on one side of the room, standing by itself, on a large, square base, was an odd structure unlike anything she had ever seen.

It was tall, easily taller than she was, and was made of some clear, translucent material, similar to the stuff that covered the front of the Samsons and the other flying machines, made as flat panels, and had four sides to it. The top was covered with machines of some kind and various cables and other stuff went away from it and toward the wall, where some of those cable then entered the wall, through a roughly-cut hole.

There were also wires and cables emerging from the base on which this thing stood. What purpose these wires and machines served, she could only guess. Some of those wires and cables went to an object standing by itself away from the big thing on the stand. Maxpatel was there, doing something to that object and next to him was a big screen, similar to the ones she had seen here before. This screen must be there to show us something, she concluded. But, even if she didn't know how it worked exactly, she could guess what this big thing on the stand was for.

"This is what will get us to Earth." Jake said, more of a statement than a question, his thoughts mirroring hers, as he looked the thing over, then turned to Jerryhandelman.

"Yes. This is the transfer chamber." Jerryhandelman responded.

He looked over the assembled group of Na'vi in the garage. Many of the Olo'eyktans and their mates were agog at what they were seeing around them. Most of them had never seen a human building before, let alone one as big as this one. And the machines all around them made the environment even stranger to those not accustomed to human machinery.

Jerryhandelman turned to her. "Neytiri, you'll need to translate some of this, I don't think my knowledge of your language will be up to the task at all, even though it's gotten a bit better."

She nodded to him. "I will be glad to assist you, Jerryhandelman."

He pointed to the machine, then to the group of assembled Na'vi. "Tell them this is what will get all of us to Earth. It is my machine. I built it. It works. I have used it a number of times and there is nothing to worry about." he finished.

She translated that to the others. They looked at the machine, then Jerryhandelman, then back to Neytiri.

"What of that thing over where Maxpatel is," someone asked and Neytiri translated. "It is called a 'control panel' and it is what makes this thing do what I want. The thing next to it is a screen and it is plugged in to a secure comm channel that goes right to my lab back home where the machine at the other end of this link is. Would you like to see the room where the other end of this link is?"

Everyone wanted to, and even if she didn't want to admit it to herself, Neytiri was fascinated. They were about to see the world of the Sky People, at least a small part of it.

Jerryhandelman nodded to Maxpatel, who did something at the 'control panel' and the next thing they knew, the screen came alive, like a moving picture box. It showed a room sort of like the one they were in, along with a big thing on a stand similar to the one in this room.

There were people in that other room, and some of them turned toward something in the room and then they were looking out of the screen at everyone here, at Hell's Gate.

There was a woman with the group and she waved at the screen. "Hi Jerry, looks like you got everybody lined up and ready to go, we're ready on this end." she said.

"Hi Pat," he replied, "yeah, we're just about ready to rock and roll over here, we'll be sending the delegation shortly. Be ready." and with that, he turned to the group.

"This will get us to the world of the Sky People" said the leader of the Eastern Sea Ikran clan, Tanhì was her name. She was wearing her warpaint, as were others. In addition, many of them had brought their weapons along with them.

"Uh, yes." Jerryhandelman said to Tanhì, then turned to Neytiri.

"Tell them they don't get to take their weapons, bows and arrows, that sort of thing." he said.

"Why is this, Jerryhandelman?" Neytiri wanted to know, as did a few others who understood enough English to follow the essence of the conversation.

"For two reasons, it is less mass to transfer from here to Earth and back and mostly importantly, because you guys are coming as a peace delegation, not a war delegation."

"So, no bows and arrows?" Jake asked, "we're to go unarmed? Why?"

"Jake do you want to tell everyone what will happen in the event that there are hostilities of some kind and even one drop of human blood is shed at the hands of a Na'vi, even if it is justified?"

He pointed off in the distance, toward his home planet. "If there is any fighting at all, it'll happen over there, on our world and we'll do it, not you. It will be better if it is humans fighting humans than Na'vi fighting humans. Trust me."

Her mate pondered that for a moment, then turned to Neytiri. "He's right. We need to tell them that." She explained this to the group. There was some grumbling and some wanted to know if they could at least take their knives with them.

"Sure," Jerryhandelman said, "as long as they are small and you can sheath them. You can put your bows, arrows, and other weapons over there, in the corner. They will be here when you come back next week."

With that, everyone took their larger weapons to the side of the big room they were in.

Once that was all done, Jerryhandelman looked to Neytiri, then to the group.

"So, who wants to go first?" he asked.

There was no movement, no answer.

"Come on, someone has to be brave enough to do this?" he muttered.

Neytiri was about to ask the question again when Tanhì stepped forward. The Eastern Sea Ikran clan were known for their bravery.

"I will go first." she announced.

Her mate, the Tsahik of their clan, looked around for a moment or two, and then also stepped forward to be at his mate's side.

"I will follow." he announced.

At that point, everyone then lined up and Neytiri then understood what the human expression "break the ice" really meant. She smiled.

Jerryhandelman went to the big machines with four clear sides. "I'll open the door and explain what's going to happen." he said.

Tanhì followed behind him, and Neytiri behind her to provide any translating that might be needed. Jerryhandelman pointed to his machine. "There is a similar machine on Earth, in the building where I work. We can see it on the monitor there. That is where she will go when she goes to Earth."

Neytiri explained that to Tahni, who looked at the machine askance for a moment, then stepped up to it.

Jerryhandelman opened one side of the machine up. Tahni stepped inside it.

"Neytiri, tell her when I close this door, she should take a deep breath and hold her hands up like this," he said holding his hands up, palms forward.

She explained this to Tahni, who wanted to know why she had to hold her breath and why it was important to hold her hands up.

"Because when you snap back into this universe, you will be moving, slightly, so you want your hands to be out so you can catch yourself on the wall if you stumble. That's why you need your hands out and up like that. And, we take the air out of the chamber so there is less mass to move, makes the number-crunching a lot easier."

"Moving?" Jake asked, "I thought you said you had all the bugs worked out of this thing."

"Well Jake, I did, and that was one of the bugs we had to work out. One of the first trips I made back to my lab, I forgot about the moving, lost my balance, and banged my head against the inside of the chamber. I was knocked out for a few seconds, the guys in my lab back home were freaked out, they opened up the chamber, dragged me out, and were about to call the hospital next door to my lab when I came to. So, we refined the mechanism of the transfer a bit better to reduce the moving as much as possible, but we can't completely eliminate it, at least not yet."

"All in the name of science." Jake smiled.

"Jerryhandelman was hurt in this thing?" Tahni said, trying to follow some of the conversation.

Jerryhandelman turned to Neytiri. "Tell her I am just fine, it was a problem with the machine that we have basically taken care of."

She explained that to Tahni, who seemed somewhat mollified at this.

She entered the chamber and Jerryhandelman closed the door.

Maxpatel did something at the 'control panel' and there was a hissing sound as the air in the chamber was removed. Tahni looked out at the group, nodded to her mate, then to Jerryhandelman, who said, "Max, do it." to Maxpatel.

Maxpatel did something else, there was a brief flickering of the lights in the ceiling, and in an instant, Tahni was gone. Maxpatel did something else at the 'control panel' and there was a hissing noise as air was put back in the chamber.

Tahni's mate stepped up to the machine. "Tell him we have to wait, for the capacitor banks to recharge." Jerryhandelman said, "in the meantime, watch the monitor." he pointed to the big screen.

Tahni was there, in the other machine, looking a bit surprised, but there nonetheless. The humans at the other machine helped her out and pointed to something in the room. She walked up to it and in a moment, was taking up all the monitor they were watching.

"I am here," she said excitedly, "on the world of the Sky People!"

Jerryhandelman nodded to Tahni's mate. "Tell him to step in the chamber."

He stepped in the chamber and disappeared. And so, they worked their way down until it was just Jake, Neytiri, Normspellman, and Jerryhandelman left. Maxpatel would be staying here to operate the transfer machine, of course, but also other stuff with the plan.

Jerryhandelman looked at Jake and Neytiri, "So who wants to go first?"

Jake stepped up to the chamber before Neytiri had a chance to respond. "I'll go." he said.

Neytiri had wanted to go first, but Jake came over to her and held her hands, "I'll go first this time and when we come back, you can go first."

She smiled at him and then he got in the chamber.

He disappeared. "Neytiri, it's your turn." Jerryhandelman said.

"I will wait until your machine is ready," she said, looking at the machine and not him.

"That's fine by me." he said.

"So, while we're waiting, you want to tell me how this thing actually works?" Normspellman asked Jerryhandelman as they looked at the chamber.

"No, not really, Norm. It would take too long to explain. It's basically a transfer chamber between universes, when you get right down to it, but that is only part of the answer. Like I said, it would take too long to try and explain how it works to you. Hell, even I don't understand how some of it works exactly but that is the point. It works, have faith in me that I designed it and know that it works."

Normspellman shrugged. "And you only came up with this less than a month ago?"

"Look, Norm, this is the culmination of years of research, on my part and that of others. I didn't just 'come up' with this thing on the fly. We've been trying to figure this out for years and now that we know it works, we'll refine the design. For now, the damn thing works and that is all you need to know. Just chill out, dude."

"Whatever." Normspellman muttered.

"This machine, you say you don't really know how it works?" Neytiri said, looking at the machine very dubiously.

"No, not quite, it's just that the theory we came up with to make this machine is so new we don't know everything about it. But we will in time."

"And whatever you do, you'd better figure out a way to make it use less energy!" Maxpatel grumbled.

"Sorry about that, I know it will eat into your fuel supply, but I have a few ideas for workarounds to deal with that issue, along with the problem with keeping the machines running out at the Tree of Souls."

"Good, because we don't have an easy way to get deuterium here without a constant resupply of shuttles from Earth and you know, the machines out at the Tree may have to run for quite some time, perhaps indefinitely. We can't be flying out there all the time to replace fuel cells you know."

"No problem, Max. Like I said, I have some ideas for workarounds and when the time comes, I will think of something. Everything will be fine, just relax."

"I'll try," Maxpatel grumbled, "it's just that I don't want to be around here when the power runs out at the Tree of Souls and the machines that get the signal here suddenly crap out on us and lose power."

Jerryhandelman rolled his eyes. "Just chill out and relax." he muttered.

The machine was ready again. She stepped in the chamber and Jerryhandelman closed the door.

It was claustrophobic and tight, but she could easily fit inside the machine. She could reach up and touch the ceiling, if she wanted too, but she didn't. She took a deep breath and suddenly, she noticed how the air inside was disappearing very rapidly. Soon, she was inside a dead chamber. There was no sound inside except she could hear blood rushing to her eardrums.

She rapped on the glass and Jerryhandelman nodded to her, then to Maxpatel. She said goodbye to Pandora at that moment.

And before she knew it, she was in another chamber, very much like this one, only it was slightly bigger, and it was in a different room. It happened so fast she could not really say she had actually moved in any way, but she was moving. She felt herself moving forward slightly, as though she was about to fall forward, but she moved her feet and caught herself. The air rushed into the chamber and she could breathe again. She drank in the air hungrily, then looked around. There were various people in the room where this chamber was located, and the Na'vi delegation was standing off to the side, obviously waiting for her. Jake was standing there, smiling at her.

A woman came up to the chamber and opened the door.

"Welcome to Earth. You must be Neytiri. My name is Patricia. I work with Jerry and am one of his colleagues."

Neytiri stepped out of the chamber and into the room.

"Yes, I am Neytiri. And where is this room located?"

"In the basement of one of the buildings Jerry and I work at to do our research." Patricia said.

"So we are on Earth?" Neytiri asked.

"Yup," Jake said, "and I never thought I'd actually ever say this, but it is good to be home."

Now all they had to do was wait for Normspellman and Jerryhandelman to arrive.

Normspellman arrived first. He came down from the chamber, seeming a little rattled. Jake and Neytiri helped him come down to the floor.

"That was interesting, in a weird way." he said.

"Yeah," Jake answered, "it almost felt like something grabbed me, my entire body, and yanked me here, or something."

"You felt that too," Normspellman said, surprised. "To me it almost felt like I was yanked into the chamber. I closed my eyes when all the air left the chamber and suddenly, BOOM, here I am, right here on Earth, or so Jerry says."

"We'll find out about that soon enough. Speaking of Jerry, he should be along soon, I figure."

"Yes," said one of the people at a 'control panel' very similar to the one at Hell's Gate, "in fact, he should be here any second." The man pointed to a monitor screen like the one at Hell's Gate. "See for yourself."

Neytiri looked around the room. It was crowded in this room, and the ceiling was very close to her head. There were a number of humans here. She recognized Scottbellovin and Tomanderson among them. Both waved at her.

They all watched the screen as Jerryhandelman stepped into the chamber at Hell's Gate. A few moments later, he nodded to Maxpatel and disappeared.

It seemed instantly later, but she was sure there must have been some passage of time, he reappeared in the chamber here. The chamber filled with air, and he stepped out.

He came down to the floor and looked around.

"We're all here, let's get you guys to your quarters." he said.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: In Which Some Things Are Settled And Some Are Not

"But first," Jake said, "I'd just like to know a couple things."

"Shoot." Jerryhandelman said.

"So where exactly are we?" Jake said.

"In the basement of the main physics building at Washington University, where I teach."

"And we're safe here?"

"Yes, absolutely." Jerryhandelman went to a box at the side of the room, opened it and removed several items. Neytiri recognized them. They were human weapons, guns. He gave the weapons to a number of people in the room and kept the last one for himself.

"There, my trusty WASP revolver at my side, I feel better now." he said. He took out some other weapons, bigger guns. "These were designed to kill Na'vi"

Neytiri recoiled at that. "They were used to kill our people?"

"Yes, but they've never actually been used for that purpose. If we have to use them, they will be used against any human who tries to hurt you or Jake. I figure that would be appropriate, guns designed to kill Na'vi being used to turn bad humans into piles of hamburger."

"So, we are safe here?" Jake persisted.

"Absolutely 100 percent, Jake. This is about the safest place you could be on this planet." He waved around the room. "The people here are all part of the Resistance, and they are all loyal to me personally. They're my people. There is a small army of people in this building and we're here for one purpose. Right now, our job is to protect you and the other Na'vi here and I swear to you, we will do just that. If anyone tries to hurt you, Neytiri, or any other Na'vi, they have to get past us first. We will shoot first and ask questions later. We are here to protect you and that is exactly what we'll do."

"Damn straight, boss!" one of the people with Jerryhandelman exclaimed, holding up her gun.

"And this building is secure?"

"Yes, again, absolutely. Jake, I can assure you, no one can get in or out of this building without my knowledge. A mouse couldn't get in here without me knowing about it. I designed the security system for this building and along the way, put in a few of my own little 'back doors' in the system and in this building, literally. Most of the people you see here now and pretty much the next few days all came in through the tunnel system under the campus and did it right under the noses of the rent-a-cop security people upstairs."

"There are people guarding this building?" Jake asked.

"There are a couple rent-a-cops out in front of the building, yes, but mostly the security inside the building is cameras, and those are pretty easy to fool, especially if you know what you're doing."

He walked over to a big, flat, thing coming out from an angle to one of the walls.

"Here, let me show you." Jake and some of the others came over and watched. "This console is one of the consoles that gives me access to the security system. See that monitor over there?" He pointed to a big screen on the wall." Jake nodded.

"Now, let me show you what that camera is showing to the main security complex on campus, if they bother to look." he pointed to a camera mounted on the wall.

"Watch the screen." he said, and it showed a picture of a room very much like this one. In fact it was this very room, Neytiri realized with a start. The difference was that it showed no people at all in the room when she could very clearly see there were a fair number of people in this room. In fact it was crowded, to not put too fine a point on it. The picture also showed no chamber or any of its workings. Jerryhandelman did something and the view changed. It now showed the room as it actually existed, people, chamber and all.

"Nobody here but us revolutionaries." Scottbellovin said, smiling.

"That's how I cover my tracks," Jerryhandelman said, "the rent-a-cops look at their monitors in the security center and see the first view, while I can see the real view because I am the one who designed the system. The system has a bunch of algorithms I designed and built in to it that let me control who sees what and when and exactly what they see. Believe me, this building really is secure. I don't do the 'cover my tracks' thing all the time, just at certain times and in certain places in this building when things need to be hidden from view, like the building of the transfer chamber, for instance, and the setting up of your quarters."

"So that is where we're going next?" Neytiri asked him.

"Yup. It is upstairs, a couple levels above us, right next to another one of my labs. That's where we're going next."

He turned to another one of the people with him.

"Dan, we got the back door covered, everyone on the ball tonight?"

"Yes we are, boss." this 'Dan' said, " we got the back door covered and the tunnel entrances sealed up. Nobody gets in or out tonight. So much for the 'security alert' the University issued the other day. The campus security upstairs, out front, and at the back door don't seem to be taking it very seriously at all."

"Good for us. Tell everyone to be ready, game time is tomorrow night. I will have a full briefing for you and the rest of the team sometime tomorrow, not sure when, probably around 1700 hours, after I am done with that lecture in advanced networking theory."

"No prob, boss. Sleep well tonight and we'll catch you on the flip side." 'Dan' said, smiling.

"And with that, now we get you guys to your sleeping quarters," Jerryhandelman said, "so follow me."

They followed him down the hallway, a very tight hallway, and into a stairwell. It was tight quarters going up the stairwell, but they managed.

They emerged on another hallway. "It's down here." Jerryhandelman said.

They all followed him and some ways down the hallway, he stopped at a set of big doors.

"Here we are." he said.

"So this is home for the next few days or so?" Jake asked.

"Yup, we need to get in there, get you guys settled in, and you get to cool your heels for a day or so until the action begins. Right now, I need to get something out of that other room," he pointed to a door across the hall.

Neytiri translated that to the other Na'vi who didn't speak English. One of the Olo'eyktans then started pushing on the big doors to get them to open, and another one started helping him. This was the room they had to get into, or so Jerryhandelman had said.

He heard the commotion and came over. "Uh, guys," he said, motioning them to step aside.

He then went to a little flat 'control panel' like the one near the transfer chamber, only this one was smaller. He did something with it, put his thumb on a flat part of it, and pushed some buttons on it.

The doors opened with a 'click' sound.

"You're in." he said.

They stepped into the room and looked around. It was a spacious, large room. There were a series of large mattresses arrayed around the room, mostly to one side of it. "That is where you'll be sleeping," Jerryhandelman said, "I know you guys are accustomed to hammocks, but this is the best we could come up with on short notice. These air mattresses should give you a good night's sleep. You guys weren't supposed to be here until next week, but we can made do, I think." He pointed to a smaller, human-sized mattress off to one side of the room. "Norm, you'll have to sleep on that. Everyone else who will be here for the operation already has sleeping arrangements in various nooks and crannies and we don't have any other place to put you up. I figure you wouldn't mind sleeping in the same room with the Na'vi and it will be easier in the long run."

Norm shrugged noncommittally, "Whatever you say, Jerry. I'm game."

"The air beds are fine," Jake said, "we pick out our own?"

"Yup. Each couple chooses their own." Jerryhandelman responded. "I have to see about something in the next room." he answered.

Before he could get much further, a door at the side of this big room opened up and a human stepped out of it.

"Jerry, you're here!" the man said.

"Yes, I am here, Tarik. You got my cat?" he asked.

"Yes, she's in your cubbyhole right now, probably wondering where her Food Guy is."

"He's right here," Jerryhandelman muttered.

He walked to the door 'Tarik' had just opened and came out a moment later, holding a small, furry animal.

"So, you work with Jerry?" Jake asked this 'Tarik' as Jerryhandelman came up to them.

"Yes," Tarik said, in Na'vi, "and if it weren't for me, this moron wouldn't be able to find his shoes every morning, he's that clueless." he continued, in Na'vi.

"I heard that!" Jerryhandelman muttered, looking at Tarik askance.

"You speak our language?" Neytiri and some of the others wanted to know, surprised at this development.

"Uh, yes, and I thought Jerry didn't speak Na'vi."

"That was before I went to Pandora and had Eywa take me into her so we can save the world together." Jerryhandelman said, snickering. "She gave me an 'upgrade' to my mind when I came out."

"Our Great Mother gave him the ability to understand our speech." Neytiri said, watching Jerryhandelman.

"Uh, that's nice, you know I was just joking, boss." Tarik said, still a little unsure if his comments had been taken out of turn.

"Whatever, but don't say something like that again," Jerryhandelman muttered.

"Do others of the Sky People speak our language here?" Tahni wanted to know.

"Yes." Tarik said after a moment. "There are many humans who speak your language." He turned to Jerryhandelman. "I gotta head back to my place. See you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, figure around 1900 hours is when the festivities should begin."

And with that, 'Tarik' left the room.

"So is that an apartment?" Jake asked, pointing to the open doorway.

"Well no, not really, just a little hole-in-the-wall cubbyhole I put in so I could have a place to crash out when some of my experiments ran late and I didn't want to drive home in the middle of the night. It's got all the comforts of home." he said.

Neytiri looked into the room, as did others. "This is your living place?" she asked.

"Well no, just a little place I use to sleep now and then when I am here late at night, like right now. My real home is some number of kilometers from here. But this little cubbyhole has a bed, a small closet for a change of clothes, a shower, a little kitchenette to cook up a quick meal, and a place to put my guitar, or one of them, at least, and one of my keyboards. Sometimes I come down here to get away from everything and hide for a while. I like to come down here and play my guitar now and then. It helps me to clear my mind, to relax now and then and get away from everything."

Jake looked around the room. "Your own little getaway, eh? I would have thought you might have had something like this in your office."

"My office is three flights of stairs above this level. It has its own private bathroom, with a shower and a little room where I have a cot if I need to get a little shuteye, but I use this little hole-in-the-wall a lot more for that sort of thing than my office."

"It's your own little man cave, eh?" Normspellman said.

"And you use this place to crash out too?" Jake surmised.

"Yeah, that and once and a while, I'll hit it off with one of my students and we'll come down here to get busy, if you know what I mean." Jerryhandelman said, smiling.

Jake looked at him. "You're telling me you've scored?" he said, looking at Jerry very strangly.

"Scored? What does that mean?" Neytiri asked, mystified.

"Uh, it means I have had a number of sexual encounters with a few human women in this room right here," Jerryhandelman said, obviously a little embarrassed.

"You, the uber-geek have scored?" Jake said, not believing what he was hearing.

"Yes, Jake, a few times, some of these grad student chicks are hot and I'm considered a rock star in the physics world, so yes, I have gotten laid a few times with former students." he continued, his pride obviously wounded.

Jake turned to Neytiri, "He's being sarcastic." he said, smiling.

"I am not! Jake Sully. I have actually had a few relationships and yes, I have even had sex on more than one occasion. What, you don't believe me?"

Jake turned around. "Whatever." he said, still smiling.

"You have no mate?" Neytiri asked him. "No children of your own?

"Uh, no, on both counts. I came close a few years ago with one of my students. We started getting hot and heavy for each other and we started shacking up together, but it didn't work out, probably because she was still my student when we started living together."

"'Shacking up' means living together as a mated couple." Neytiri asked him.

"Uh, yeah, something like that, anyway it didn't work out, but I got a cat out of the deal at any rate." he said, holding up the little furry animal in his arms.

"See," he said, "to some of us, the Na'vi look like cats, so we called you the Cat People of Pandora."

Neytiri could see very little resemblance to herself or any other Na'vi in this little creature he was holding. She picked it up and looked at it. It easily fit inside both her hands.

"This animal is yours?" she said. The little animal looked at her and began making a low, rhythmic grumbling sound, oddly soothing in its own way.

"Well, more like, she deigns to associate herself with me because I am her Food Guy." he answered.

"Food Guy, that's pretty good." Jake said laughing.

"Well, she knows that when I show up, that means only one thing. Hence the name, 'Food Guy' for me."

"Food Guy?" Neytiri asked, mystified.

"I feed her, so she thinks of me as her Food Guy." Jerryhandelman said.

"So," Jake looked around, "we get settled in here and then await the next phase?"

"Yes," Jerryhandelman said, "and if you look at the other end of the room, see those curtains?"

They all looked to where he was pointing.

"The curtains on the left are for going to the bathroom, we roughed in a place for you guys to uh, you know, answer the call of Nature with some privacy and the curtains on the right are where you can take showers and wash up, if you need to." He pointed around the room. "There are also curtains you can put around your beds, if you want a little privacy."

"Sounds like a plan." Jake said. He turned to Neytiri. "Let's take a bed."

Everyone found a bed and got settled in.

"One more thing." Jerryhandelman said, "I am about to go into that room and get some much needed rest, but before I do that I want to give you something."

He looked around and found a box sitting by the wall of the big room they were in. "Aha, Tarik came through."

He opened the box and began handing out its contents.

"These are protein packs made from algal concentrates. We humans eat this stuff and it keeps us alive. It might not taste good, but it will keep you all alive until you're ready to meet with the Earth leaders and start negotiating the peace treaty."

"Ugh," Jake made a face, "the one thing I didn't like about living here was this crap."

"Hey, it will keep you alive." Jerryhandelman muttered.

Neytiri opened one of the packages and put the stuff in her mouth. It tasted bland, but edible.

"Thank you Jerryhandelman for your hospitality and your generosity." she said. Others echoed that sentiment.

"That reminds me, Neytiri, I have something to show you." Jerryhandelman said mysteriously and before she could answer, he went into his little room and emerged a few moments later, holding a flat, square box of some sort.

"Remember the chess game I showed you back on your world?"

She nodded to him.

"Well, here's a chess set I had made especially for myself. It's based on people from your clan. When we were first getting to understand your clan and your people, I had the idea that it would be cool to have a chess set with Na'vi characters, so I had this made a few years ago."

He opened the box up and showed her what was inside. It was a board, similar to the one he and Normspellman had used on Pandora and later on, Normspellman had used to teach her the basics of this game the Geeks played. Except it was a much bigger board and the pieces were larger.

She gasped in recognition. The 'King' piece was a miniature version of her father, Eytukan, right down to the Olo'eyktan's mantle around his neck. The 'Queen' piece was her mother, in miniature form. The 'Knight' was Tsu'tey, and the various other pieces were based on members of her clan.

"This is your chess set?" she asked him in wonderment.

"Yes, it's the one Norm would have gotten had I not returned from becoming one with your deity. I've had many sets in my time, and I used to play chess with Jake's brother right here, in this very room, with a different set than this one, but this set is my favorite."

"Perhaps I might play with this set someday." she said a little wistfully.

"I hear Norm taught you to play." he said.

"Yup." Norm said, "and Neytiri is a pretty good player, actually."

She smiled at him for a moment, then looked back at the set again. "This reminds me of my father, it makes me sad in a way, but it is done very well. I thank you for showing me this, Jerryhandelman."

"You're most welcome. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to hit the sack." Jerryhandelman said.

"You will be back?" Neytiri asked.

"Yes, of course I will, I'll be in that room right there, sleeping. See you all in the morning."

"Funny," Jake said, "We only just woke up a few hours ago and I feel tired already, like I want to get some sleep."

Neytiri and some of the others agreed.

"That's a side effect of the jump through the transfer gate. You come out feeling tired. I don't know why that is but it is." Jerryhandelman said, as he headed to his little room.

"Hm, in any case, it's time to get some sleep." Jake answered.

And with that, everyone else settled in for the evening.

Neytiri and Jake found one of the beds and claimed it as their own.

"Just like home," Jake said, smiling at her, "except here we're the aliens." he finished.

She smiled back at him as they lay down for the evening. "But, my Jake, this is the world you came from, remember? This was your home."

"Yeah, but I'm just visiting. It will be great to get this over with so we can go home for good."

"Agreed," she said, already drifting off to sleep, "let us trust Eywa that Jerryhandelman can do this for us ..."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: A New Day Dawns, And There is a Slight Change of Plan

The next morning, Neytiri awoke, feeling truly refreshed, yet still a little tired, for some reason. Others were stirring. It was time to get up. If they were at Hometree, it would have been time for breakfast, but she was not sure exactly what Jerryhandelman and his friends would provide for them. She was sure they'd find out soon enough.

Jerryhandelman emerged from his little room as everyone was getting up and stretching.

"Good morning everyone." He said.

They all turned to him and Neytiri and others offered their greetings.

"Good morning to you, Jerryhandelman." she said. "We slept well, but I still feel a little tired, for some reason. Others among her people felt similar.

"That is probably because the gravity on our world is a bit stronger than on your world. It might take a little getting used to."

He looked around the room, at the assembled Na'vi.

"Just a couple quick things," he said, "breakfast will be a little more of that prepackaged protein stuff. I know it's not what you're used to, but it will have to do, for now. We'll try to get you some better food a bit later. Also, tonight is when we execute the plan, and you'll get to watch it as we carry it out. But before that, we'll be having a briefing here, in this room, with me and a few others in which we will show you some picture of the people you will meet, their names and titles, and stuff like that, so when you sit down to negotiate with them, you'll know who you're talking to. And finally, we'll be getting you all some clothing similar to that of the humans, clothing designed for dreamwalkers, but it will fit you as well. Along with that, we'll be providing you with what we humans call 'shoes' which are basically just things we put on our feet to protect them from the ground. The clothing and shoes will make you fit in better here, especially when you go to meet with the Earth leaders."

He point up to the ceiling. "I have to go upstairs and pretend to be a professor guy for most of the day. I'll be back a bit later on today, and then, we get to kick some RDA butt."

Neytiri smiled as she translated that to those of her people here who did not speak English.

"'Kick some RDA butt.'" She said, smiling at Jerryhandelman, "is that more of your sarcasm, Jerryhandelman?"

He looked at her for a moment.

"Don't worry, I will forget it, as you always tell me to do. But I am curious, how can I forget something if you never tell me what it is?"

He sighed.

"Yes, 'whatever' seems to be such a useful word to you Geeks. Perhaps I will starting using when I am talking to my Jake about something or other. 'Whatever' apparently means 'I don't want to talk about it' to you Geeks."

He glared at her for a moment, then left the room.

She noticed Jake was smiling. "Good one, Neytiri." he said, with a chuckle.

-SCENE BREAK-

The next hours passed surprisingly quickly, she decided later. She and the Tsahik of the Eastern Sea Clan got to talking about how best a Tsahik should interpret Eywa's will when the signs could be very ambiguous at times. His name was Kanu'tute, and he was a number of years older than she was. She felt his wisdom was almost as great as her father's had been, a bittersweet memory now that her father was with Eywa.

"Neytiri of the Omaticaya, you are just embarking on your journey with Eywa. She will always guide you, but you must listen to Her, and feel Her in your heart. She will never deceive you or make you feel as though you are not worthy of Her."

"I understand that, Kanu, it is just that sometimes it feels to me like Eywa is distant to me, as though I can't hear her."

"In time, my young friend, you will hear Her voice as surely as you hear your mate's voice. No matter where you are, Eywa is always with you, even here, on this distant world of the Sky People. Eywa chose Jakesully to be our Toruk Macto, and She chose you to be mated with him. You must trust Her and if you do, She will always be with you in your heart."

"Forgive me for being impudent, but I must ask, how long have you been Tsahik of the Eastern Sea Ikran Clan?" she asked him.

He thought for a moment. "For almost ten turns of the seasons, since we lost our last olo'eyktan to the storms. I was mated to Tahni, his eldest daughter, and when she became olo'eyktan, it was time for me to become Tsahik of our clan.

"You have led them well, both of you." Neytiri said, "Eywa has blessed you."

"Not as much as you have been blessed. You are mated to the sixth Toruk Macto, and I can feel that you are very wise. You will make a good Tsahik for the Omaticaya, this I am sure of."

Neytiri did not know what to say. She was humbled.

"Thank you, Kanu. You have given me much to think about."

"And you, in turn have given me much to reflect on as well, my friend."

She looked around the room. Some of the Olo'eyktans were talking amongst themselves, and some were talking to their mates. Some of the Tsahiks were talking amongst themselves as well, just as she and Kanu had been doing.

And others were, in the words of her mate, "just hanging out" while they waited for Jerryhandelman to return and for this strange war to begin, a war he promised them would involve no shooting, killing, or destruction.

She for one, was very happy with that. She had seen enough killing to last a lifetime.

-SCENE BREAK-

Before long, it was much later in the day. She didn't realize just how fast the time had flown by. Normspellman went out to assist Jerryhandelman and his friends with bringing them food and boxes of what he said was clothing they would be wearing. They would not have to wear the human clothing yet, but it felt oddly comforting to her that Jerryhandelman and his friends had thought this effort through to the degree of giving her people here some clothing similar to that of the humans.

They would not "stand out like a sore thumb" as he had said.

Finally, after more time had passed and everyone had had time to look through the boxes of clothing, pick out what they might want to wear, and even try on some of the foot coverings Jerryhandelman had called 'shoes' it came time for supper.

Jerryhandelman and his friends came by with some different food. It was a kind of meat he called "steak" and it tasted kind of like Yerik meat, even though it was still rather bland, it was a little better than that dry stuff that had come in the little packages.

"This food is good, Jerryhandelman," she said, and others among her people here agreed. "Yes, this tastes better than the other stuff you have given us," Tahni said, "even if it isn't what we're used to eating. Do you Sky People eat much of this 'steak'?"

"Some do, but this kind of food is very expensive to get. There are not enough cows around to feed all of us this way, so only a very few people get to eat food like this. I am able to do this because I can afford it, more or less. Most humans can't, so they have to eat the protein packages made from algae. Food like this is considered a special treat for humans."

He had also brought another package with him. "Neytiri, I wanted you to have this. It's some extra clothing I got from the avatar shack on Pandora, clothing Grace Augustine had worn when she was in her dreamwalker body. I think she'd want you to have these to wear here when you meet with the Earth leaders."

She took the package from him and held it in her hands for a few moments.

"Thank you for this, Jerryhandelman." was all she could trust herself to say at the moment.

"You're most welcome," he said, with a smile. "Now, it's time to show you guys some things."

He moved to one end of the room. "If I could have everyone's attention please."

All the Na'vi turned to look at him. He looked to Neytiri, "If you could translate for me, Neytiri, that would be much appreciated." he said.

"I would be honored to." she answered.

He continued. "I'd like for you to gather around over here, you can sit on your beds, if you like, or on the floor. I have some pictures to show you, and I need to tell you a few things about what's going on. I will outline what we're about to do on your behalf, and tell you more about who you will be meeting with sometime in the next few days."

Normspellman and several other humans brought in a machine of some kind and set it up against one end of the room. They put up on a raised platform of some sort. Neytiri could not discern the reason for this, but decided Jerryhandelman would tell them in due time.

He waited until the machine was all set up before continuing.

"This machine will show you some pictures over here, on the far wall." he motioned to the other end of the room. "And I will explain to you who and what is in the pictures."

He put his hands behind his back and walked back and forth a couple times, collecting his thoughts before continuing.

"First, you need to understand something about how the way in which we humans govern ourselves and our world. There are many, many clans of Sky People. Right now, you are in the territory of the American Clan of Sky People, a clan of which I, Norm Spellman, and most of the others here are members of." he said.

Tahni spoke up, confusion in her face. "But did you not say to us that you were from the Geek Clan, Jerryhandelman. I do not understand this."

Before he could answer, Neytiri interjected, switching to Na'vi.

"Jerryhandelman is from the Geek Clan and the American Clan. All the clans of Sky People have Geek Clan people in them. Is this right, Jerryhandelman?" she asked.

"Yes, this is correct. I am from both clans, but the American clan is a very powerful, very large clan of the Sky People. We are not the only clan of Sky People. The Russian Clan is also a powerful clan of Sky People, as is a clan call the European Union, which is a collection of clans in a place called Europe. That place has the British Clan, the French Clan, the German Clan, and many others. We Sky People also have something called the United Nations, which is sort of like a gathering of all the clans of Sky People. It helps us settle our differences peaceably, keeps all the clans from breaking the law, and is essential to our world."

He paused for a moment, and took a drink of water from a glass on the table next to him.

"You have to understand the group of Sky People called the RDA are mostly from the American Clan of Sky People, but not all of them. Because they are not all from the American Clan, the RDA has to answer to the United Nations and that is what we intend to do when we have accomplished our mission: force the humans who lead the RDA to answer for their crimes."

He nodded to Normspellman, "Hit the lights and let's start the dog-and-pony show."

The lights went off, and a picture appeared on the wall. It showed a woman, whose skin was dark, darker even than the color of the drink she had seen Maxpatel and Normspellman drinking a few times. They had called it 'coffee' or some such a name.

"This person is the leader of the American Clan of Sky People. Her name is Coretta Abernathy and she is one of the people you will be meeting with when you sit down to negotiate the peace treaty between our two worlds."

Tahni spoke again. "Your leader is a woman?" she asked, intrigued. Neytiri was curious too. She assumed that, like with the Na'vi, most Sky People clan leaders were men. It was not unknown for there to be female clan leaders like Tahni, but this was not typical. Perhaps the Sky People operated in a similar way.

"Yes." Jerryhandelman said, "our leader is a woman. She is called the 'President of the United States' because that is her title as our clan leader and like I say, her name, which you will need to know, is Coretta Abernathy. You can refer to her as 'Madame President' when you are talking to her."

"Cor-etta Aber-nathy, Ma-dame Pres-i-dent" Neytiri said, along with everyone else.

"Wait a minute, she's the president? When did that happen?" Normspellman interjected.

"Yeah," Jake said, "I thought she was a senator or something when we left Earth. She's the President now?"

"Yes to both accounts, she won the '48 election, which happened while you guys were asleep, on your way to Pandora. She's midway through her second term right now, but she didn't get my vote, either time." he muttered.

"Come on, tell us how you really feel, Jerry!" Jake said, smiling.

"Long story, Jake, let's just say she and I have some bad blood between us and leave it at that for now." Jerryhandelman said with finality.

"But wait a minute, weren't we asleep for only six years?" Jake wanted to know. "You're telling me she's the President and she's already been re-elected? How's that possible?"

"See, that's why you're not a physicist, Jake. You and Norm here were asleep for almost five years of ship time, but you were traveling at 70 percent the speed of light for most of the trip to get to Alpha Centauri. You have to factor in the time dilation effects of traveling that close to the speed of light."

"Oh yeah, that is right, can't forget that." Normspellman said, "that's why it's nearly seven years here since we left."

"Time di-lation?" Neytiri wanted to know.

"Forget it, it would take too long to explain." Jerryhandelman waved his hand to the side. "Next slide, Norm."

The picture changed to that of an older human.

"This is the leader of the Russian Clan of Sky People. His name is Nikolai Suvarov and his title is President Suvarov, you may call him 'Mister President' when you speak to him."

"Nik-o-lai Su-var-ov Mist-er Pres-i-dent" Neytiri and everyone else recited.

The next picture was of another older man.

"This is the man who leads the United Nations. His name is Antoine Perreault and his title is General Secretary. You will call him Mister General Secretary or Secretary Perreault when you refer to him, or Antoine, if you actually know him, which won't be an issue here."

"He is not 'President' of the United Nations?" Neytiri asked.

"No, only some Earth leaders are called 'President' and among the other leaders, they have different titles. Some are called 'Prime Minister' and others are called by other names. Secretary Perreault is a very important person among the leaders of our world and his word carries much weight with the Sky People. It is our task to make sure he is on your side when it comes time to sit down and negotiate the peace treaty."

He showed a few more pictures of various leaders of the Sky People before he told Normspellman to turn the lights back on in the room.

Neytiri and the others blinked at the sudden return of lighting to the room.

"Sorry about that," Jerryhandelman said, "forgot that your people have more sensitive vision that we do."

"It is not a problem, Jerryhandelman," Neytiri said, "we are just glad you are here to explain these things to us. We thank you for this." There was agreement amongst the assembled.

"Then the next thing. In a few hours, we'll be going upstairs to another big room, similar to this one, only it is a little larger. It is the room where I and others will be fighting and winning the war that will free both our worlds from this menace. It has a number of machines we need to fight the war, so we will need to take over the room and keep it secure."

"You don't have control over this room now? I thought you ran this whole building." Jake said, sounding annoyed.

"Yes, this building is my base of operations, Jake, but that doesn't mean I can do whatever I want anytime I want. I have some latitude because of my position, because I am a tenured professor, because I bring in multimillion dollar contracts to this university, because of who I am, but I can't just walk into that room any old time I want and start using it. It is a network switching and control center that is used by everyone in this department and by the computer science department. It is also guarded, albeit by a couple rent-a-cops, but guarded nonetheless. If this plan had gone the way I wanted, under the original timetable, I would have been scheduled to use that room next week, when we were going to originally do this and those guards would have had the night off. So, we'll take the room by force. Don't worry, there are more than enough of us to do this."

"Whatever you say." Jake muttered.

Jerryhandelman was about to say something else when one of his friends came up to him. She whispered something in his ear. Evidently he was not happy to hear this. "You're sure?" he asked her in low tones. "Go talk to him yourself." his friend said, "he's on the line right now and they're 16 hours ahead of us, remember."

Jerryhandelman looked at everyone for a moment. "Sorry about this, everyone, I have to go check up on something. I'll be back in a few minutes."


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: In Which There Is An Impromptu Jam Session

A few minutes turned out to be almost a half an hour.

When he came back, Jerryhandelman was not happy.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you all, but we won't be going to war tonight. It seems that someone forgot to do something and a couple critical pieces we need to proceed are not in place quite yet. It should be a few hours more, but that would put the start of the plan into tomorrow, so I and others decided to move the start of the plan back to tomorrow night. Trust me, we know what we're doing, we just need to get everything in place first."

"So we have to wait for almost another full day?" Jake asked.

"Yes. Sorry about that." Jerryhandelman said. "Tomorrow night, I promise you, we will do this and there will be no more delays."

Everyone was disappointed, but they all realized that Jerryhandelman and his friends were doing their best.

Normspellman came over to Neytiri. "I wouldn't worry too much about this, Neytiri. This is a a game of chess, only you have to make sure you have all your pieces ready. Jerry is just being careful, that's all." he said.

She recalled her chess lessons with him. "I will try to remember that, Normspellman."

"So now what?" Jake wanted to know.

"I don't know," Jerryhandelman said, "I guess you guys could get some rest until the morning. That's what I am thinking would be the best right now." He turned to one of the people with him. "Tell the others to stand down until further notice." That person nodded and left the room.

Jake pointed to the room where Jerryhandelman lived. "You want to play a few songs on your guitar? I'd love to hear some music before hitting the sack?"

Hitting the sack? Did her mate want to hit something? She wondered.

"Hit the sack?" she asked.

"That's just sarcasm." Both her mate and Jerryhandelman said at the exact same moment, then looked at each other and burst out laughing.

"What is so funny?" she said, becoming annoyed with both Jake and Jerryhandelman.

"Sorry my dear, it's just that Great Minds Think Alike sometimes." Jake said, still laughing a little over that.

Jerryhandelman paused for a few moments, then came to a decision.

"Sure, Jake. I can give you guys a musical interlude or two, or three." He turned to Scottbellovin. "Scott, you got your guitar upstairs?"

"Yeah." Scottbellovin said, "you want me to go get it?"

"Yup." Then Jerryhandelman turned to another friend. "Terry, you want to play the keyboard while me and Scott strum the guitars?" This 'Terry' seemed inclined to do so and both of them went into Jerryhandelman's little room. They emerged a few moments later, Jerryhandelman with his 'guitar' and this 'Terry' holding a large, flat object, with little black and white bars on it.

"Me and Scott will play a few songs on our guitars and Terry will play on my keyboard here."

A few minutes later, Scottbellovin returned holding an instrument very similar to Jerryhandelman's 'guitar' and all three of them took up position on one side of the room.

"You all can sit on your beds and listen to us while we serenade you." Jerryhandelman said, looking around the room.

Everyone took a seat.

Jerryhandelman turned to both his friends, "Let's start with a little Monty Python, shall we?"

"Your wish is our command, O Great Leader. Shall we look on the bright side of life?" Terry said with a smile.

"Sure," Jerryhandelman laughed, and he and Scottbellovin began moving their fingers up and down the strings on their instruments. A beautiful sound ensued, accompanied by 'Terry' pushing the black and white bars on his instrument. Neytiri was stunned, for here were three humans, making enough music with just their instruments and their voices that they were almost as lively and loud as an entire tribe of Na'vi singing one of the Sacred Songs. Jerryhandelman began singing. It was a song about always looking on the bright side of life, accompanied by Jerryhandelman and Scottbellovin whistling periodically throughout the song.

The song had a catchy beat, especially when Jerryhandelman and his friends sang the song's title. With a start she realized she was tapping her feet in time with the music, as was Jake, and that was because Jerryhandelman and his friends were moving their feet as well. She noticed that some of the other humans were singing along with Jerryhandelman and his friends. She smiled. She could feel that Jake was happy now, with this music they were playing.

She looked around and noticed that many of the Na'vi were moving along with the music. Tahni was mouthing the words, repeating what she was hearing, even if she didn't understand the lyrics and she was smiling too. She looked over to Neytiri and Neytiri smiled back. This was fun!

The song came to an end. Jerry looked to his friends. "How 'bout a round of Rolling Stones?"

"Sure!" 'Terry' said, "Lead on!" as he did something to his instrument and the sound of drums emerged from it.

"Pleased allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste." Jerryhandelman sang, looking at Jake.

"I've been around for a long long year, stole many a man's soul and faith." Jake answered, laughing but also singing along.

"And I was around when Jesus Christ had his moment of doubt and pain." Jerryhandelman answered back in song.

"Made damn sure Pilate washed his hands and sealed his fate." Jake replied, still singing.

"Pleased to meet you, hope you guessed my name." Jerryhandelman answered back, and with that launched into this song about someone who had been around for a long, long time. Neytiri didn't understand the lyrics, but her mate did and she felt his heart glow with something. Was it love? Gratitude? Joy? Or something else she wasn't sure but whatever it was it was good.

Her mate felt good for the first time in a long time. This was the first time he'd felt this way since they had watched the Sky People depart on their shuttle, it almost seemed a lifetime ago now.

He was happy and she was happy for him. She took his hand and smiled at him.

Jerryhandelman and his friends finished that song and launched into another song, something about not fearing the 'Reaper' or something like that. Jake was singing along with them as they sang the song. This song also had an infectious beat, even if she couldn't understand the song itself.

And so it went on for a while before Jerryhandelman asked Jake if he had any special requests.

"You guys know any Led Zeppelin?" Jake asked.

"Sure." and with that, they launched into a song about a lady who climbed some kind of a stairway to a place called 'heaven' which Neytiri realized with a start sounded like Iknimaya. Jake looked at her, smiling.

"Just like climbing up the Thundering Mountains, eh?" he said.

"What an interesting song, Jake. Do the Sky People, uh, I mean, humans have a Path to Heaven they must complete too? Is that was this song is about?"

"Nah, it's just a cool song, that's all." Jake said, still smiling.

Jerryhandelman and his friends then launched into a song about a horse with no name. "Imagine that." Neytiri said, looking at Jake. "A horse without a name. How odd."

Her mate smiled. "Yes, but that song rocks!"

She smiled back at him. She had no idea what the song was about but she had to agree that yes indeed, this particular song 'rocked' and if it made Jake happy, she was happy.

"The Sky People have such interesting songs." Tahni agreed, joining the conversation.

"Yeah, never really thought about it that way, but you're right, I never realized how much I would have missed our songs, but yeah, some of these songs take me back." he said, a bittersweet tone to his voice.

Neytiri took his hand again. "Do these songs remind you of something." she asked.

"Yeah, where I came from." was all he could say, his eyes taking on a vacant look, as Jerryhandelman and his friends launched into another song, this one about going to a place called 'California' if she heard them right.

She looked carefully at her mate and noticed he was crying, very softly, the tears running down his cheeks. She put her arm around him and held him as Jerryhandelman and his friends serenaded them into the night, singing songs of love, songs of peace, songs of heartache, songs of justice, truth, betrayal, songs of joy, and songs of life.

They sang and played and Neytiri watched as her mate became a human again, in a strange sort of way. She smiled when she realized he had become reconnected with his heritage. She held his hand as they listened to the songs Jerryhandelman and his friends sang, their love for each other holding both of them together, two Na'vi united by their bond of love and their love of song.

She thanked Eywa again for bringing Jake into her life.

And before long, Jerryhandelman and his friends stopped singing. It was almost morning now.

"Damn, I really need to get a little sleep." he said, "Thank you very much, but the concert is done, at least for the moment."

"That was excellent," Jake said, "but you're right, we all should get a little sleep."

And so, the music came to an end. Jerryhandelman and his friends put their instruments away and the other humans began leaving the room.

Neytiri came up to Jerryhandelman as he was about to go to his sleeping place.

"Thank you for that, Jerryhandelman." She told him. "You have given my Jake a taste of the good that humans can do and reminded him of where he came from. I thank you very much for this."

"No problem, Neytiri. Glad I could do that for him." he said, before going into his room.

And with that, a new day was about to begin.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: War

They all got a chance for some much-needed rest and the rest of the day passed by quickly, it seemed to Neytiri. The Na'vi all waited patiently. Last night's musical interlude had done well to entertain them, but everyone was ready for Jerryhandelman and his friends to fight the war and bring an end to all this madness.

Before long, it was much later in the day. It was evening, in fact, according to the humans with Jerryhandelman, one of whom told them that the sun had set. For some reason she could not fathom, Jerryhandelman and his "people" had planned to do this "Operation" during the evening. Neytiri did not know why this was, but she accepted it, as did the others.

Jerryhandelman came to their big room that evening.

"Alright, everyone. We're ready. Let's go."

They all followed him into the hallway and into a stairwell. It was crowded and the stairwell was too small to walk comfortably in, but they could crouch down and so they followed him and his "people" up the stairs.

They finally got to a landing up several flights of the stairs. Neytiri was not sure how far up they had gone, but she knew they were not on the same floor as the sleeping room.

Jerryhandelman paused at the door. He turned to Jake, pointed to himself, then the door, then his eyes, then made a strange gesture with two of his fingers, then to the instrument on his wrist, then mouthed two words at Jake. Jake nodded.

"He's going out to check on something. He'll be back in a minute. One of Jerryhandelman's "people" kept the door open a crack. They heard Jerryhandelman down the hall, talking to someone. The person he was talking to seemed to think Jerryhandelman didn't have the authority to do something and there was something said about how he should "know the protocol for these things" and regulations being regulations. She heard Jerryhandelman say something about "just thought I''d ask anyway." and before too long, they heard him coming back down the hall.

Jerryhandelman returned. He went to one of his "people" and whispered something in that man's ear. He then came over to Jake.

"Alright, Jake. The room we need is just down the hall. The guards are in there, with their heads up their asses, as usual. We're all going into the hall, you guys follow us. I tried to talk the guards into letting us just use the room, but they wouldn't budge. Regulations, you know."

Jake nodded. "So you're going to take the room?"

Jerryhandelman pointed to his gun, hidden under the jacket he was wearing. "You got it, Jake Follow me and wait for my signal."

They followed him into the hallway. He and several of his "people" were at the front and the Na'vi were behind them.

They got to the entrance to the room. Jerryhandelman paused. "Jake. Stay here and when you hear my signal, come on in."

"And what will your signal be?" Jake asked.

"You'll know when you hear me say it to the rent-a-cops inside." Jerryhandelman said mysteriously.

"Whatever you say." Jake said.

And with that, Jerryhandelman and one of his "people" entered the room.

"Dr. Handelman? You're back again?" she heard a voice say.

"Yes, Joe. I am back and I and a few of my colleagues need this room tonight. You sure we can't have it just for this one time? You can have the rest of the night off."

"Thanks, Dr. Handelman, but you know the rules. You have to sign for the room and get the Dean's countersignature on the form before you can have exclusive access to this room. Rules are rules, you know. We can't break the regulations, not even for you."

"Well in that case, I am afraid I have to insist that we use this room tonight, and you're not going to stop us." She heard Jerryhandelman say, followed by a CLICK sound, which made Jake jump for an instant.

"That's the signal." He said and they all entered the room, the Na'vi ducking under the low door frame as they entered the room. This was a big room, she realized, big enough that the ceiling was easily far above their heads. Probably not a one of them could even touch it.

As she came in with Jake and they walked past Jerryhandelman and his friend, Neytiri noticed that Jerryhandelman and his friend were both aiming guns at the two other humans behind a desk of some kind. Jerryhandelman was aiming his weapon at one of the men and the other person with him was aiming his weapon at the other.

"I'm sorry to do this to you, Joe, but I have to insist on using and controlling this room and what comes in and goes out of it tonight. Don't do anything stupid, like trying to sound an alarm or anything like that, because if you do so, you get in my way. Get in my way and I will kill you. I really, really don't want to deprive your son of his father. Don't make me have to do that, Joe, and we'll be just fine."

'Joe' nodded and didn't say a thing. Neytiri felt a chill in her heart, remembering how she had felt when the Sky People were attacking the Tree of Souls, right before Eywa had intervened. This 'Joe' was just a problem to be dealt with, but she hoped and prayed that he would not do something rash, forcing Jerryhandelman to kill him, depriving his son of his father. Killing should be done only when necessary. That was Eywa's way, and Neytiri had a feeling Jerryhandelman would kill anyone who got in his way tonight.

_He's ready to fight for us_, she realized.

Jerryhandelman turned to the other man. "I don't know you from Adam therefore I will have absolutely no problem killing you if you try to play hero tonight. You're just Deputy Duane Dumbfuck to me. Do something stupid and you're a dead man. Do you hear me, mister?"

The other man could only gulp and nod, staring at the weapon aimed at him.

Jerryhandelman's words chilled Neytiri to the depths of her soul. This really was a man you did not want to cross, she truly realized now and for the first time, she actually felt a tinge of fear in the pit of her stomach while she looked on at Jerryhandelman. _Thank You Great Mother that he is on our side_, she thought randomly.

The two men behind the desk looked from Jerryhandelman and his friend to Neytiri and the Na'vi with her. Their eyes almost bugged out.

"Yes. We have some guests with us tonight and we intend to treat them to a little party in here." With that Jerryhandelman nodded to a couple of his "people" who took the two men behind the desk away to a corner of the room. Their hands were bound to a railing of some sort. Jerryhandelman's "people" took some things off of them.

"You just sit tight there and this will be over in a few hours. You get a front row seat to history being made tonight." Jerryhandelman said.

More of his people began coming in the room. He motioned to Jake and Neytiri.

"Jake, see that big alcove over there, on the side of the room?" Jake nodded.

"That's were you all will go and sit. You can sit on those big tables, if you'd like, or stand up and watch us do what we do best."

They all went to the "alcove" Jerryhandelman had mentioned. It was big, but the ceiling was a little low, almost grazing their heads. But, they could fit in the alcove, if some of them sat on the tables and others stood by them.

Jerryhandelman's people began to take positions behind various desks and sat on chairs behind these desks. There were human machines here at these desks, machines whose purpose and function she could not discern, but evidently the people using them knew exactly what they were doing.

As his people took their places, Jerryhandelman came over to Jake and Neytiri.

He looked a little haggard, but ready for the fight, whatever that fight might be.

"Tonight is a night you will remember for the rest of your lives," he said, "you will be able to tell your grandchildren about this night and what happened here. So, before we go to war against our own people, I just want to give you a quick head-up on what's going on and what you'll be seeing us doing on your behalf tonight."

"Go ahead." Jake said.

"See those monitors on the wall over there?" he said, pointing to the far wall of the room. Jake nodded. "Those are where the action is taking place. You'll be seeing some maps of the network, pictures from rooms like this one where some of my colleagues around the world are doing exactly what we will be doing in this room, more or less. See that counter over there by the side of that one monitor? Note the number on that counter. You will see it go down and it will start dropping a little bit after we start. It will start dropping faster until it gets to zero. That number is the number of critical servers we need to take down and give over to Eywa. I will make contact with her first, we'll connect her to our network, and we'll start doing what we do best."

"Which is exactly what, I have no idea, but I am glad you're doing it." Jake said.

"Remember what I told you when I first explained this plan, Jake? This is a fight you can't fight because you don't know how to fight it?"

Jake nodded.

"Well, we're going to fight it for you and the way we do that is we're going to be attacking certain critical servers, network backbones, routers, etc. and as we're attacking them, we'll be taking them down so Eywa can grab control of them."

"And at a certain point, it simply becomes inevitable that she can take the whole thing." Jake finished, looking at the screens, then at Jerryhandelman.

"More or less. By ourselves, we could never take down the whole network. We could take down parts of it, but they'd fight back. By herself, Eywa could probably take down the whole network, but I am not counting on that. I am counting on the fact that they have never ever dealt with an entity like Eywa. She is simply more powerful than they are."

"And between you and Eywa, they won't stand a chance." Jake said, smiling.

"Yup. And one more thing. See the guy in that chair over there, putting on the VR headset and gloves?" he said, pointing a particular man wearing a strange suit and sitting in a chair off to the side of the room.

Jake nodded again.

"He's the equivalent of my tactical officer. He'll be plugged right into the network with a virtual server and he'll be telling me in real time what's happening with the network. In other words, he'll be giving me a human dimension to what will be up on the screens you see on the wall. You'll also see me sometimes getting up from my chair and running over to another station and occasionally someone else doing the same thing, because we're a little bit short of people to do everything. Nothing to worry about, just understand that we're going to be very focused on what we're doing and as I have time, I will try my level best to keep you in the loop, but don't be surprised if I don't have the time to do much of that."

Jake looked at Neytiri and then stood tall for a moment. He saluted Jerryhandelman and after a moment, so did Neytiri. The other Na'vi followed suit, not really understanding what they were doing, but understanding that it was important to the Toruk Macto.

"Jerry, we're going to watch you do what you do best and I am quite sure you'll have plenty to show us tonight."

Jerryhandelman nodded. "Now if you'll excuse me, I got to talk to my people for a few moments, make contact with the other teams around the world, and basically get things going."

He walked up to the front of the room, where the wall of monitors was. He asked a question of one of his people, who gave him an answer he was satisfied with. He then went to one of the desks and did something at one of the monitors.

"Sydney, you there, John?" he asked. One of the monitors showed a room similar to this one they were in. A man at one of the desks looked at the camera. "Sydney here, Jerry." he said, in an accent that sounded different from Jerryhandelman and the other humans she'd heard.

Jerryhandelman did something else to the monitor. "Bejing, you on, Xiang?" and the monitor showed another room, and a man who looked a little different from Jerryhandelman, but was human nonetheless. He said he was "on and ready to go."

And so it went on for thirty seconds or so. Jerryhandelman called someone in a place called "Paris" and spoke to her in a different language. After a bit, they switched back to English. He called on someone named Sergei in a place called "Moscow" and she suddenly realized this "Moscow" place was in the sunlight. "That's because it's on the other side of the world, where it is sunny right now." Jerryhandelman said.

Jerryhandelman did something with his monitor and on a different screen, she saw Maxpatel.

"Max. How's our signal?"

"Reading five by five." Maxpatel said. From where he was sitting, she could tell he was in Hell's Gate, but it must have been a different part of the facility she'd never been in.

"Alright then Max, flip the switch on your end." Max did something and then Jerryhandelman turned to Normspellman, at another desk. "Norm, flip the switch here." Norm did something and the lights flickered for an instant, then came back on steady.

"Talk to me Jimmy. Is she here yet?" Jerryhandelman asked the man in the front of the room at the special chair.

"Hot damn, yes she is, I felt that. She's here, Jerry."

"I'm reading phase lock at 40 percent, 60 percent, 85, 90, 99 percent, the link is stable." Normspellman said.

"Good." Jerryhandelman got up and walked to the front of the room. He looked out at the people in the room, then to Jake and Neytiri. "Tonight is history. What happens in this room in the next few minutes and the other rooms around the world that that are in reach of my voice will seal the fate of our race, whether we are to live free or die as slaves, let it never be said that we did not try to free ourselves from the shackles of tyranny."

He pointed to the alcove where Jake and Neytiri and the Na'vi were.

"Tom, aim the camera over there for a moment. I just want you all to realize exactly what we're fighting for tonight and who we're fighting for because it's not just our world we're trying to free, it's their world as well. I want you all to know, those of you who have been with this through the years of preparation, the months of strategic planning, through all of it, that I am damn proud of each and every one of you and I expect no less than 110 percent of your efforts tonight. The fate of our world hangs in the balance. No matter what happens tonight, know that I am proud and humbled that you are here, standing with me on this night."

"Here, here!" came from several people in the room, and she heard similar sentiments coming from the sound speakers above the monitors.

"Alright, with that, let's get going, shall we?" he said, going to a particular desk.

He turned to Jake before sitting down. "This is my workstation, it is biometrically linked to me and I am the only one who can use it. You will see why that's important in a moment or two."

Jake nodded.

Jerryhandelman sat at this particular "workstation" and did some things at it. After a few moments, he was satisfied. "Sergei, are you reading the signal five by five?" This 'Sergei' answered that yes he was. "And your secondary?" Jerryhandelman said. Getting an answer he liked, he then announced something to the room.

"Alright everyone, stand by. I'm about to make contact."

He turned to Jake and Neytiri again. "I'm about to contact your Great Mother. Wish me luck, and if this works out, I will have a bit of a surprise for you guys. Watch that central monitor."

"Whatever you say." Jake said, smiling.

Jerryhandelman entered something on the keyboard.

The words, "Hello Eywa. This is Dr. Handelman" appeared on the screen.

The words, "Hello Dr. Handelman, this is Eywa" appeared below those words.

"What, you're texting Eywa?" Normspellman said.

"Yes. It's quicker than trying to talk directly to her and saves bandwidth. Besides, I wasn't using this particular keyboard for much of anything, so I thought I'd use it for this purpose. You can take your children to the Smithsonian someday and show it to them."

"Whatever." Norm rolled his eyes.

Jerryhandelman typed something into his computer. "How is the weather in Paris today, Eywa?" then appeared on screen.

The words, "It is springtime in Paris and the roses are in bloom, Dr. Handelman." appeared underneath his words, followed by the words, "And where does the Ikran fly, Dr. Handelman?"

"The Ikran flies where the wind will carry it, the Ikran flies where Your will commands it, Eywa." Jerryhandelman said as he typed those words and they appeared on the monitor.

"I see you, Dr. Handelman." appeared on the screen.

"I see you, Eywa." Jerryhandelman typed, then turned to Jake and Neytiri.

"I have made contact with your Great Mother."

Neytiri and several others rushed up to him. "You are speaking with our Great Mother?" she said excitedly.

"Yes," he muttered, then motioned to the alcove, "and could you guys stay over there please? You're distracting me."

Normspellman looked at him for a moment. "You're at a workstation only you can access, linked to Eywa over a secure comm link, and you're using code phrases to talk to her?"

"It was something we came up with when I was in there with her just to make sure we'd know it was the other one we're talking to, just in case I accidentally got some fanboy in Omaha instead." Jerryhandelman muttered.

"Whatever you say," Norm said.

"Be ready." Jerryhandelman typed into the machine. "We are about to open the doorway to for you."

"I am ready." was the response.

Jerryhandelman looked at Normspellman. "Norm, flip open the network switch and open the doorway for Eywa."

Norm did something at his station. "The switch is flipped on, and the link is stable." he said.

Jerryhandelman clapped his hands together and called out loudly. "Alright people, let's get to work. We have our first target in sight. Time to take the RDA down a couple notches."

"Damn straight!" someone in the room said.

"John, Xiang, keep iterating that algorithm I gave you, just keep them guessing long enough for us to catch them by the short and curlies." Jerryhandelman said. One of the people in the room asked a question and he got up and went to that person.

"No, first that server then the other one, then the first one again. Just keep them off their balance and keep them guessing, that's the name of the game tonight." he said.

"Jake, what is 'server'?" Neytiri wanted to know.

"Uh, I'm not sure exactly." He pointed to the counter on the wall. "I think they're attacking them and making them crash, or something." The number was getting smaller, she noticed.

"This is good, then?" she asked.

"Uh, yeah, I think." Jake said, sounding unsure.

If this was Jerryhandelman's idea of a war, she had no idea exactly what was being fought or who was doing the fighting. She would trust Jerryhandelman and his "people" that they knew what they were doing.

Jerryhandelman returned to his "workstation" and then did something else there. The screen with Maxpatel came up again.

"Max, how's our signal?" he asked.

"Still five by five, the link's stable on our end and so far, Eywa's using only about 4 percent of the available bandwidth. I think Eywa hasn't even shown us half of what she's capable of, Jerry."

"Good, let's give her a chance, shall we?" Jerryhandelman said.

Then there were several questions and answers flying around the room and from the speakers. It was going too fast for her to follow and they were speaking jargon she couldn't even fathom, let alone understand, but evidently what was said was making Jerryhandelman very happy.

"Talk to me, Jimmy. We got them on the run?" he asked the man at the front of the room.

"Hell yeah we do, boss! The dumb fuckers can't seem to figure out what's going on. All that deception, trickery, all that stuff you put out there before seems to have blown some serious smoke up their assholes. I say go for it, now's as good a time as ever!"

Jerryhandelman went over to another person. "Alright, Denny, grab that last server, if it is down, let's give it up to our lady friend."

"You sure, boss?" 'Denny' wanted to know.

"Damn straight, we got them on the run, let's take advantage of the situation before they can get their act together. Do it!"

'Denny' did something at his station while Jerryhandelman returned to his special desk.

Everyone in the room paused what they were doing and watched the main screen.

"Come on girl, you can do it, go for it. Take it!" Jerryhandelman said under his breath.

Something on the main screen changed, and Jerryhandelman and most of the people in the room starting smiling.

"Talk to me, Jimmy. She got it yet?"

"Oh yeah, baby, she's got it. Boss, we just took the RDA down, down, down!" 'Jimmy' said.

"Hot damn!" Jerryhandelman and several other people yelled. There was much whooping and hollering. Evidently this was something good.

"Is this good, Jake?" Neytiri asked.

"So what did we do, exactly?" Jake asked Jerryhandelman.

"We just took down the RDA's central server backbone and gave it over to Eywa, that's what. It's ours now!" Jerryhandelman said, obviously very happy.

"Yes, this is very good." Jake said, smiling at her.

She smiled back. "Then perhaps we are winning this war." she said.

"It looks that way." he answered.

"Now comes the hard part, we're going after the governments and their networks." Jerryhandelman muttered. "OK people, first target down, let's take the others."

He was about to sit down at his station when 'Jimmy' said something to him.

"Uh, boss, NORAD's gone."

A strange look crossed Jerryhandelman's face. "You sure?" he said, looking at the monitor.

"Uh, yeah, it was there a second ago, and now it's gone. I mean, Ewya grabbed it. Did someone tell her to take NORAD?"

"No. Not yet. Hm." Jerryhandelman murmured. He did something at his "station" again.

"Sergei. What's your situation with the Russian network?"

'Sergei' did something where he was, then looked at Jerryhandelman with a very worried look on his face. "I was just about to ask you, Jerry. The Russian government server network, the whole thing, the whole backbone, is gone. Eywa grabbed it, all of it, a couple seconds ago."

"Shit." Jerryhandelman said, but before he could say something else, 'Jimmy' said something that grabbed his attention.

"Jerry, the Moon's gone." he said.

"What do you mean, gone? It can't be just gone -" Jerryhandelman said, then stopped and looked at the monitor.

"Holy fucking shit!" was all he could say.

He sat down, and suddenly, things started happening very quickly.

Someone said something about "both networks" becoming "integrated as one network." which caused Jerryhandelman to check something with someone. "Are you sure?" he asked that person.

"Yes, she's moving the equivalent of six Library of Congresses through just the link here, not counting Sergei's connection." Jerryhandelman looked defeated for a moment, then went back to his desk.

There was a flurry of questions and answers and many voices coming from the speakers on the wall. Someone was saying something about "multiple independent signals" coming from somewhere. This news did not make Jerryhandelman happy. Maxpatel said something about the bandwidth being "maxed out" yet Eywa was still "ramping it up somehow" which caused Jerryhandelman to paused for a second or two while he looked at the monitors. He asked a question of "Sergei" and got an answer that made him look even unhappier. Jerryhandelman did not look like the same man who had been so happy a minute or so before. Now he looked worried. Indeed he looked scared.

"Alright people. Calm down. I got to make contact with Eywa again, see what's going on." Jerryhandelman said. Neytiri looked to her mate and realized that Jake was also getting scared.

"What is happening, Jake?" she asked him, trying to keep the fear out of her voice.

"I have no fucking idea, but I don't think it is good." he said, looking at the monitors.

Jerryhandelman typed something on his keyboard and the words, "Eywa, what's up?" appeared on the screen followed by the words, "I am protecting the balance. We shall talk again soon."

This scared Jerryhandelman, she could plainly see.

"OK, uh, Max. Cut the signal. Now!" he said to the monitor where she could see Maxpatel.

"You sure?" Maxpatel asked.

"Yes. Damn it, she's getting way ahead of the game, way ahead of us. It's time to show her who's boss. Cut the signal, both at the Tree and at your end."

Max did some things she wasn't sure of and while he was engaged with those tasks, Jerryhandelman called "Sergei" and told him to "cut the connection on your end, and your secondary." and after a moment, "Sergei" said that they were cut off.

Max announced the same thing.

"Alright. We're cut off. Sergei, I need you to tell me you're still in control of your network. Can you do that?" Jerryhandelman said.

He got an answer from "Sergei" that made him say "Shit!" several times in rapid succession. He asked other people to do things and they all told him they were trying. Their answers made him even more upset. He looked at the monitors and started saying. "No, no, no, no." several times in a soft voice.

"Uh, Jerry." Max said, "I am getting some strange readings from the orbital satellites. Something's happening to Pandora's magnetosphere. It's like it is linking up with Polyphemous' magnetic field but in a way I've never seen before."

"Oh no, no, no, no, no. NO!" Jerryhandelman yelled. He then asked someone to check something that had to do with the "magnetospheric satellite" and what it was saying. The answer he got made him collapse back in his chair.

"Jimmy, talk to me, do we have anything?" he asked the man at the front of the room.

"Nope. She's locked me out of the network. The only thing I can tell you is that she must be running the connections independently of us."

"Shit." was all Jerryhandelman said at that and put his head in his hands. "Oh shit." he said in a small voice.

Jake walked up to him. "Jerry. What's going on."

Jerryhandelman looked up at him, and smiled, a half-crazy smile. "Eywa did it Jake. She grabbed control of the whole goddamn network. All of it, or at least, all of the important stuff. She's isolated those parts she couldn't grab and now we're fucked."

"Wait a minute, isn't that what you wanted?" Jake said, mystified.

"Uh yeah, but I was supposed to be in control, not her. She's grabbed control and she locked me out. She's locked all of us out."

"This is bad?" Jake asked.

"Yes. Very bad. I can't control her now Jake. She's in the driver's seat, not me."

"Can't you cut her off?" Jake asked, again mystified.

"What the fuck do you think we've been trying to do for the past two minutes, Jake!" Jerryhandelman yelled at him. Jake recoiled slightly at that. "We tried to cut her off, but it didn't work. She's grabbed control of not just the network, but any and all ground stations she needs and she's using Polyphemous' magnetic field as a mirror to reflect the signal directly from the Tree to here. She's bypassed us and there isn't a damn thing we can do about it. We can't even turn the machines off here, because she's supplying the energy to run them directly from Pandora's magnetic field in tandem with that of Polyphemous. She's in charge, not us!" Jerryhandelman said, angry.

"And there's no way to cut her off at all?" Jake asked.

"You don't get it, Jake. Even if there was some way we could cut her loose, I think it would kill her, Jake. She's integrating herself into our network and integrating our network into her." He brought his fingers together. "She's turning both networks into one network. We try to cut her off and we kill her. It's that simple."

Neytiri came up next to Jake. "What are you saying, Jerryhandelman?" she asked him, fear beginning to creep into her voice.

"I'm saying you'd better start praying because your deity Eywa is now in charge and if she wanted to, she could destroy all of because she's got her finger on every missile, every bomb, every bomber, every gun that's connected to the network and there isn't a damn thing I or anyone can do to stop her." He looked at Jake. "I'm sorry, Jake. I fucked up royally plain and simple. I blew it. When I went in their with her, I gave her everything she needed to take over control of the network and keep us out. Everything. All my accumulated knowledge about the network, the magnetic environment of Pandora and Polyphemous, everything she needed, and she put all that knowledge to use." He put his head in his hands.

Neytiri put her hand on his shoulder. "We must trust Eywa that She knows what she is doing."

"I am not feeling too good about Eywa right about now, so I'd better keep my mouth shut, Neytiri." Jerryhandelman muttered, looking askance at her.

"Uh, Jerry. Something's weird about the network." Normspellman said, pointing at the monitors. "That pattern there, I'm not sure, what's going on."

Jerryhandelman looked up at the monitors, then at Normspellman, "Norm. Does that pattern look familiar to you?" he said, very slowly and carefully.

Norm looked again, then his face went slack. "Oh shit." was all he said.

Jerryhandelman called someone and asked them to look at something on their screen.

"I'm seeing the same thing here, Jerry." this person said. "I'm guessing maybe two or three minutes at the most, then it'll be self-aware."

Jerryhandelman laughed hollowly for a moment or two.

"What's so funny?" Jake asked.

"God, when I screw up, I really, really, screw up." Jerryhandelman said, pointing at the monitors. "Jake, she's rewiring our network. It's about to become self-aware. Oh God did I fuck this one up." he muttered. "She's turning our computer network into her own avatar."

"Self-aware? What does that mean?" Jake asked.

"It means that between the two of them, Jerry Handelman and Eywa have created a new life form together." Normspellman said, getting up. He walked over to Jerryhandelman and put his hands on Jerryhandelman's shoulders. "Congratulations, dad it's a boy, or a girl, or something."

"I thought you said you don't have any children. Did you lie to us?" Neytiri asked him sharply.

He smiled at her, a wan, empty smile. "No, when I fuck up, I really, really fuck up." He put his head back in his hands. "I should have known better." he muttered under his breath.

Norm looked at Neytiri. "What he means is that he didn't intend to create a new life form here, but he did, with Eywa's help. Our computer network is about to become alive, no thanks to Jerry here."

Jerry looked at Norm. "Thanks Norm, for those kind words of encouragement." he said, anger in his voice.

"Just telling it like I see it, dude." Norm said, with a smile.

"Now what?" Jake asked.

Jerryhandelman looked at him. "I have absolutely no fucking idea what to do next, Jake. It's out of my hands now, if it ever was in my hands to begin with."

Suddenly words starting appearing on the screen. Everyone looked up at the monitors and the room fell silent.

"To the People and Nations of the Planet Earth," the screen said.

"I am Eywa, the Great Mother of the people you know as the Na'vi, on the world you call Pandora in your language. I am their deity. The human you call Gerald Handelman is my friend. He and his friends are very wise and they are responsible for bringing Me here to your world, along with My children who are here with him. You will listen to him for he is wise and understands what is at stake and why I want for there to be peace between our two worlds.

"For nearly thirty of your years, the group of humans you call the RDA have been lying to you about what they are doing on Pandora, both to Me and My children, the Na'vi. They have told you and many of you believe that My children the Na'vi are ignorant savages compared to you and your great civilization. This is not true. My children have never done anything to hurt you or your people who have come to My world but in return, the humans who have come to Pandora have caused much pain and grief among My children.

"This will stop now. I am now in control of your planetary network. If you hurt Me or My children the Na'vi ever again, I can and will destroy you if it is necessary to protect the balance of life. I do not wish to do this, but if you hurt us ever again, I will have no choice. I will do what I have to do in order to protect Myself and My children from you.

"Some of you may not wish to believe that it is possible your fellow humans are capable of doing evil things against Me or My children, so I must show you exactly what your fellow humans did to my children recently, as recently as two of your months ago."

The screen changed and it showed a view of a large tree, just like Hometree. It was Hometree! Neytiri suddenly realized with a start. She saw small, familiar figures, including two people tied up to a rack. It was Grace and Jake! This must have been the day the Sky People had attacked her home.

She watched in horror, reliving the moment when they launched their weapons at her home and she watched as it came crashing down. The other Na'vi present were also watching in horror. Most had only heard of this horrible event, none had experienced it firsthand, like she had.

She watched, tears falling down her cheeks, as her ancestral home was destroyed. The screen went blank for a moment, then the words appeared again.

"This is but one example of the depravity your race has perpetrated upon us and this I will no longer accept from you. You will make peace with My children the Na'vi or I will destroy you. The choice is yours, People of Earth, and I trust you will choose wisely. You will listen to my friend Gerald Handelman for he knows me. It is he who will show you how to change your ways and it is he who will show you what you must do in order to make things right between us."

The screen went blank, followed a moment later by the lights in the room.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: and Peace? Or Perhaps, Chaos First, Then Peace

"Uh, relax everyone. It's just Eywa, shutting everything down, I think. She's rebooting the entire system, the whole network." she heard Jerryhandelman say in the darkness. Red lights came on a moment later, casting an eerie light upon the room. "Emergency lights." he said, pointing.

Suddenly the lights in the room came back on, as well as the machines and the monitors in the room, which she suddenly noticed had turned off momentarily.

"And now we're back." Jerryhandelman said, with a thin smile. He looked like he was about to start crying. "Eywa has control of the system, or at least enough of it that she might as well be controlling the whole thing, and it's self-aware." He looked around the room. "I'm sorry everyone, but this is now out of my hands."

The woman named 'Patricia' stood up from her workstation and looked at Jerryhandelman.

"So now what, O Great Leader? Do we follow you all the way off the cliff?" she asked him, an icy, angry tone to her voice.

He glared at her for a moment. "Hey, just so you know, Eywa just fingered me to the entire goddamned world as the guy who brought her here. It's not like I can just stage a do-over and call it even. I am just as screwed as the rest of you."

"But we followed you. We trusted you, Jerry. And you blew it."

"Tell me something I don't know!" he snapped, anger in his voice.

"You don't have any idea how to get us out of this mess. Do you?" she asked him.

"Not a clue. I really, honestly don't know what to do." he yelled, now sounding like he wanted to crawl away into a deep, dark hole and never come out again. He sat down at his desk and put his face in his hands.

The speakers at the front of the room, from which the people who had helped Jerryhandelman had spoken earlier began to emit a strange, cackling, rustling noise, followed by a voice.

"Hello Dr. Handelman." the voice said, in English.

Everyone in the room, Na'vi and human stopped.

It was Graceaugustine! Or else it was someone who sounded very much like her, Neytiri thought, before she suddenly realized Who was speaking to them.

Jerryhandelman lifted his head from his hands and looked up. Everyone in the room watched him as he got up from his chair and walked to the front of the room.

"Uh, hello Eywa." he said in a small, but still clear voice.

"You are a very strange race, Dr. Handelman. You are capable of much good, full of poetry, beauty, love, compassion, yet capable of doing absolutely evil things, both to yourselves and to your own world. You have much to learn."

"Uh, yeah, you could say that, Eywa. It is in our nature. It's who we are. It is what we are. Is Grace there with you?"

"The human you called 'Grace Augustine' is now a part of me. I am speaking to you in this voice because I know it will sound familiar and comfortable to you. My children are there with you, are they not?"

"Uh, yeah. They're right here, with me."

"Bring them forward. I must speak to them."

Jerryhandelman motioned to Neytiri and the other Na'vi.

"Your Great Mother wishes to speak to you." he mumbled.

Neytiri and the others stepped forward. They all looked up at the ceiling, at the speakers.

"We are here now, O Great Mother. What do you wish of us?" Neytiri asked, in Na'vi.

"Neytiri, daughter of Mo'at, my child. This is the only time I shall communicate with you this way, for it takes much effort for me to do so. You and the other Tsahiks must listen to Jerryhandelman and the people with him. Follow them, for they are wise. Soon, very soon, you will be speaking to the leaders of this world. I want you to make peace with them so that there will be no more war. It is as Jerryhandelman wanted. You are now in a position of strength because he has brought Me here and I am now in control of their machines and their planetary network. But I cannot do this forever. I will do so for as long as is necessary, but the sooner you negotiate a peace treaty with the humans, it will be better for all of you, humans and Na'vi. You must trust Me and trust Jerryhandelman and the people with him that this insanity will end soon."

Kanu spoke up. "This we will do, O Great Mother. We know you will be with us and protect us. Tell us what we must do now."

"I have sent messages to certain humans, telling them what they must do to help you so that this insanity can be ended. Follow Jerryhandelman and the people with him. They will show their fellow humans the way to peace. Listen to him, he is very wise indeed. I will always be with you."

The speakers went silent, and Jerryhandelman slumped back in his chair. He looked at Normspellman. "Did you hear all that?" he asked, wearily.

"Yup. You're in the hot seat now, aren't you?"

Jerryhandelman smiled wanly. "It sure looks that way, doesn't it?"

Just then, there was noise coming from one of the monitors at the desk by the door.

Jerryhandelman walked over to the desk and did something with the monitor. Suddenly, there was a picture up on the main screen. It showed a man looking right at the camera. He was dressed in some kind of uniform and there were other humans with him, behind him.

"Dr. Handelman. I know you're in there. This is Sheriff Elroy Coltrane. I need you to come outside and talk to me and the men with me."

"Oh shit." was all Jerryhandelman could say to that.

"You know this guy?" Jake asked him.

"Yeah, sort of. He's the county sheriff around here. I've met him a few times. His daughter was part of a pro-Na'vi protest group and we thought we might be able to get him on our side through her, but we never really pursued that. Looks like he's brought the Army with him. Damn. And they're right out there at our front door. Damn, damn, damn."

"What is a 'coun-ty sher-iff'?" Neytiri asked.

"Uh, he's the guy in charge of enforcing the law in this part of Virginia and he's here to arrest me, I think." Jerryhandelman finished, still looking at the screen. He walked back to the desk at the front of the room.

"Yes, Sheriff Coltrane, this Dr. Handelman. What do you want?" he said at the desk.

This 'Sheriff Coltrane' looked away from the camera for a moment, looked at the men behind him, then back into the camera.

"I don't want to talk about all that this way. You need to come outside and talk to me and the men with me."

Jerryhandelman paused for a moment or two. "Alright, Sheriff. We'll talk. Give us a minute here and we'll get back with you." He turned away from the desk.

"Whatever you say, we can wait, for a little bit." The sheriff said on the main monitor.

Jerryhandelman walked over to the two men who had been guarding this room before they had come in. He took something from one of his "people" and then released the two men from where they had been shackled to the bar. They got up.

Jerryhandelman looked at one of the men, the one he had called 'Joe' earlier when they had come in to this room. "Joe. I'm sorry. I didn't mean it." he said, in a weak, tired voice.

'Joe' and the other man looked at each other for a moment, then at Jerryhandelman.

"No problem, Dr. Handelman. You were doing what you had to do. For what it's worth to you, I'm on your side." the other man said.

Jerryhandelman looked at him and 'Joe' for a moment. "That means a lot to me. You're free to go. Go on out the front door and tell them I will be out in a couple minutes or so."

'Joe' and his friend nodded and left the room. Jerryhandelman returned to the desk. "Sheriff Coltrane, I just sent out the two guards who were in this room when we took it over. They will be out in a little bit. The sheriff nodded. "That's good." was all he said.

A minute or so later, Neytiri and everyone else saw 'Joe' and his friend emerge at the front of the building, where this 'Sheriff Coltrane' was. They stepped away from the camera and the sheriff talked to them for a moment, out of earshot of the camera. The sheriff returned to the camera.

"Alright, Dr. Handelman. You're coming out now?"

"Yes. Just give us a second. I have to talk to my people here. We'll be out shortly."

"Alright, we can wait, for a bit longer." was the response, but clearly the sheriff was getting impatient. For what, Neytiri didn't know and wasn't sure she wanted to find out.

Jerryhandelman went back to the front of the room He held some sort of communicator device in his hand and held it up to his face as he started talking.

"I'm sorry everyone. This hasn't turned out the way I thought it would. The county sheriff is out front and wants to talk to me, or so he says. I am afraid as soon as I step outside this building, they'll arrest me on the spot, but that's on me. Not you. I'm responsible for all this and I'll take the fall for it. If you want to cut and run you can go ahead and do so. For anyone in this room here, and anyone now listening to me, I won't stop you. Most of you came in through the tunnels, and if you want to leave and take your chances outside, that's your call."

Several of his "people" in the room stood up, with their weapons in hand. "I've followed you this far, Jerry. I'll stay with you all the way." Scottbellovin said. Others agreed and there were several 'Damn straight!' and 'we're with you!' comments heard.

"And we're with you all the way, Jerry." Jake said, looking at Neytiri and the Na'vi. "We won't let them harm you, not if I have anything to say about it." There were murmurs of agreement amongst the Na'vi. Jerryhandelman had done something for them, and they wouldn't soon forget it.

'Patricia' got up and looked around the room. "Jerry. I'm out of here." she said simply.

"Anyone who wants to come with me, you're welcome to follow. I won't be part of this mess any longer." she concluded.

A number of people gravitated to her, some of them putting down their guns. They formed up as a group and left the room. "Best of luck to you." Jerryhandelman said as they left. "And you too, Jerry." this 'Patricia' said.

There was a much smaller contingent of people now left in this room.

Jerryhandelman returned to the desk at the front of the room.

"Sheriff Coltrane. We're coming out now but we are not, I repeat, not surrendering. We are still armed and we have no intention of giving up our weapons anytime soon. We'll talk, but I don't want the Army pointing their guns at me. Could you move them down the street a block or so. I don't want to talk to you with them aiming their guns at me."

The sheriff sighed. "Whatever you say, Dr. Handelman. Believe it or not, the Army is here to protect you and the Na'vi with you, mostly to protect them. But if you want, we'll move them a little ways away." He turned around and spoke to the humans behind him for a few moments. The humans then left, walking out of view of the camera.

"Alright, Dr. Handelman, they're down the street a block or so. Now will you come out?" the sheriff asked, exasperation in his tone.

"Yes. We're coming out." Jerryhandelman said. He then did something at the desk and spoke to the monitors. "Everyone around the world who can hear my voice. I'm about to go outside this building. I don't know what will happen now. You may not hear from or about me ever again, but I wanted you all to know that I take responsibility for all this. I could not have done any of it without all of you, but in the end, it was me who did this and it is I who must face the consequences of what I have brought down upon us. Good luck to all of you and goodbye." he finished.

There were several heartfelt goodbyes coming from other place around this world, from the people who had helped Jerryhandelman in this 'war' he had just fought for the Na'vi.

Jerryhandelman looked at Jake and Neytiri. "Jake, Neytiri. Follow behind us. Tell everyone to stay close. We will protect you no matter what."

"We're with you, Jerry." Jake said, and with that, he and the rest of the Na'vi formed up behind Jerryhandelman and his much diminished group of people. They all walked out the door and into the hallway and then down another narrow stairwell. Neytiri had to crouch, as did most of the other Na'vi, but, even as scared as she was, she realized that she was about to see the outside of this place and step out into the world of the humans, for the first time. Fear and excitement played around her gut as they came up to the front door of the building.

They stepped out onto the front steps of the building. The sheriff and two men dressed similar to the way he was dressed were with him.

"Dr. Handelman, if you and your group would come down out here on the lawn, please." the sheriff said. "Me and my deputies would like to talk to you over here."

Jerryhandelman and his group walked down the steps and fanned out across the lawn, interposing themselves between this 'Sheriff Coltrane' and his 'deputies' such that none of them could get to the Na'vi without having to get past Jerryhandelman and his people.

"Goddamn." one of the 'deputies' said. "They really are here."

"Alright, we're here. What do you want to talk about?" Jerryhandelman said.

The sheriff pointed at Jake and Neytiri. "The President want to talk to you, and she wants to talk to them, mostly to them. That's why the Army is here. She sent the Army to come with me to get you. They're here to protect you and the Na'vi."

"Really? I'm not under arrest?" Jerryhandelman said.

"Nope. Not yet, at least. Those are not my orders. You're in a lot of trouble, you know that by now, but that's beside the point."

While this conversation was going on, Neytiri was looking around, marveling at the sights, sounds, and smells of this world of the Sky People. She noticed some of the other Na'vi were also doing the same. The street they were standing near was brightly lit with lights on poles. There were machines in the distance, moving along some kind of rails. It was loud and smelly, but this was their world, not hers.

Because she was looking around, she saw the other humans coming down the street, from the opposite direction where the other human warriors had retreated. They were dressed similar to Jerryhandelman and his friends, and they had weapons. There were five of them, she could see.

Jerryhandelman was about to respond to something the sheriff said when Neytiri pointed to the other humans coming up the street. She asked Jake about them and his expression showed concern, then fear.

"Jerry, who are those guys." he asked.

Jerryhandelman looked down the street at the humans and his expression changed.

He brought up his weapon and the other people with him brought theirs up as well.

"Jake, Neytiri. Get everyone down on the ground behind us now." he said, never turning his gaze from the people coming up the street. Something in his voice made her very, very scared, and she and Jake immediately complied. They and the rest of the Na'vi got down on the ground behind Jerryhandelman and his friends. Jake put himself over Neytiri, covering her while he kept looking toward the humans. She could tell he was terrified suddenly. She didn't know why, but now she was scared too.

"Put your guns down!" the sheriff yelled. "There's no need for any of that."

"I want to know who the hell those people are, Sheriff Coltrane, and I won't put my gun down until I know they are no threat to Jake Sully or the Na'vi." Jerryhandelman said, his gaze never wavering from his weapon, still aimed at the people who were now only a few meters away.

"I don't know who they are, but you need to put your gun down now!" the sheriff said, drawing his own weapon.

"You people stop right there!" Jerryhandelman yelled.

The small group of men stopped. One of them was carrying a piece of paper with him.

"Sheriff. I am here to execute an arrest warrant on Jake Sully for violation of various laws as well as a contract with the Resources Development Administration. If you will not execute this warrant for us, then I am asking that you step aside and let us carry out this legal warrant. Now, please."

"Everyone just calm down!" the sheriff said. "Tony, go get that." he said to one of his people, who walked over to the other man and took the piece of paper from him. He took it to the sheriff and they both looked at it. "It's a legal arrest warrant, what do we do now?" the sheriff's man wanted to know. The sheriff looked at the piece of paper, then at the man. "I have orders that supersede this, so you back off right now." the sheriff said.

"What you do is step aside and tell these dumb fuckers to step aside so we can collect on the bounty for Jake Sully, is what you'll do!" the leader of the other group of people said, snarling as he pulled his weapon and aimed it at Jerryhandelman. "That avatar is a 500 million dollar payday and I aim to collect on it, so you step aside right now!" he yelled.

"Over my dead body!" Jerryhandelman yelled back.

"That can be arranged, asshole!" the other man yelled back. The men with him drew their weapons. Neytiri could feel Jake tensing. She looked up at Jerryhandelman, outlined by the streetlights, a defiant figure, weapon at hand, ready to defend her and Jake to the death. In the many years to come, this image, this moment, was exactly how she would remember him, this moment etched in her memory forever, this human who was ready to die for them.

"Take one step closer and you're a dead man!" Jerryhandelman said, slowly and carefully, his aim never wavering, his gaze never averting. "Sheriff, I will not let them take Jake. You'll have to kill me before I let that happen." Jerryhandelman said, still looking at the other man.

"All of you, put your guns down now!" the sheriff said, pointing his weapon toward both Jerryhandelman and the other man.

"Uh boss, maybe we should back off, we're outgunned." one of the men with the leader said.

"Fuck that! These guys are just a bunch of fucking geeks. " the leader said, taking a step forward. "They aren't going to shoot."

Suddenly, bad things started happening.

Jerry fired his weapon at the other man, who went down, his head a bloody ruin. The men with him fired their guns, as did the people with Jerryhandelman. People started falling down all around her. She watched in horror as Normspellman and Scottbellovin both fell before her. Jerryhandelman fell down across her and Jake, his knee and hip shattered and bloody, blood coming from his chest.

He fell down and Jake got up, picking Jerryhandelman up. There were people yelling and screaming around her, but she suddenly realized that there was something slick and black all over her, something she knew with absolute horror could be only one thing.

It was Jerryhandelman's blood.

Jake held Jerryhandelman in his hands. Jerryhandelman looked in Jake's eyes.

"Safety, Jake. Get them, safe ..." he trailed off, blood leaking from his mouth. His eyes went blank, unseeing.

Neytiri started screaming.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17: A Time To Heal

Neytiri and Jake stood by the hospital bed, looking down on a small, frail human figure, a figure now somewhere between the world of the living and the world of the dead. Jerryhandelman was not moving, or speaking. There were various machines, tubes, and things Neytiri could not identify that were surrounding him, and some of them attached directly to him.

"How is he?" the sheriff said, coming up to the bed and standing next to Jake and Neytiri.

"He's alive, for now." his doctor said. "Whether he remains that way or whether he comes back to us, is up to him. We've done everything we can for him, we're giving him the best care we can here, eighteen hours straight in surgery, just to get him to this point. He's got a new heart, that's what most of those tubes and wires are for, we've replaced his knee and his hip, we've patched him up as best we can. The nanobots are doing their thing, healing him up from the inside as much as they can. Now it's up to him whether or not he comes back."

"Well, I have to go and explain to the President's people what happened, so I'd better get going." the sheriff said.

"Sheriff Coltrane, will Jerry face murder charges if he survives this, for killing that one guy?" Jake asked, fear in his voice.

The sheriff looked up at him. "I don't know what you're talking about, Mr. Sully. As far as I can recall, the other guy fired first. Dr. Handelman was just shooting in self-defense, that's what I'll say in my report. Thirty years I've been in this business, I've never seen a cleaner or quicker kill than he did when he shot that guy. Nailed him dead on right between the eyes. As far as I'm concerned, he fired in self-defense."

Jake looked at him for a long moment. "Thank you." was all he could say.

The sheriff looked at Neytiri. "Even though we are Sky People and we follow the God of the Sky People, some of us respect the children of Eywa and we love them too." he said, in Na'vi.

"You speak our tongue too?" Neytiri asked, surprised.

"Yes, some of it, at least. I picked it up from my daughter. Speaking of Eywa, she's the reason I am here with you today." the sheriff said, switching back to English.

"I don't follow." Jake said.

The sheriff held up a little machine in his hand. "Eywa sent me a text message last night, when all this started happening, telling me to come get you and Dr. Handelman because she knew he'd trust me and that I would shortly be getting a phone call from the President of the United States about all this. At first I thought it was a joke, but then I realized that the message she sent me could only have come from someone who knew certain details about me, that only I and a very, very few people know. Since those other people are accounted for, I knew it had to be her. Then I get a phone call from the President and the next thing I know, we're driving over to the university, me and a platoon of Regular Army guys, to come get you and Dr. Handelman, and it went downhill from there."

"In any case, we're glad you were there." Jake said.

"I may just be a county sheriff, but stupid I'm not. Eywa may have taken control of our computer network, but that don't mean she's gonna do what she said she would do in that message to everyone she sent out last night. We won't do anything stupid to piss her off, I mean. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go see the President now, and see if things have started to calm down yet in the wake of all this madness."

"Thank you again." Jake said, taking the sheriff's hand and shaking it.

"You're most welcome." he said, tipping his hat to Jake and Neytiri. "Mr. Sully, Neytiri, I'll see you later, perhaps." and with that, he left the room.

Jake turned to Jerryhandelman's doctor. "Is it really that bad for Jerry?" he asked.

The doctor sighed. "I don't know. I just know it's a goddamned miracle he even survived getting shot that bad, two bullets right through his chest, one nicking his aorta, the other hitting his heart, his knee is the least of his injuries, if he survives this. Fortunately for him, he was less than 50 meters from the front door of this hospital and fortunately for him, this is the hospital I work at."

"You know him?" Jake said.

"Yes. We've known each other for about twenty years now. It's a damn shame, though, the bullets ripped up his chest like that. I had to patch him up all over again and put everything back together again, just like I did the first time."

"The first time?" Jake asked, mystified.

"He was in here about two months ago or so. I did a major reconstruction on his chest. He wanted the same procedure I've been doing for the past few years on people who don't want to have to use breathing filters any more. It's funny, though, that he wanted me to do it so he would be rated to breathe the atmosphere of your world," he said, nodding to Netyiri, "as if he'd ever actually go there."

"So you're the doctor who did that to him?" Jake said.

"Yeah, you know about that?" the doctor said.

"It's a long story, but yes. Is there anything we can do to help him?" Jake answered.

"You can start praying, it's about the only thing that will help him right now." the doctor said.

Neytiri looked at Jake, then the doctor. She came to a decision.

"I want to help heal him, Toktor. He is my brother, I am his Tsahik. I can help heal him." she said, with finality in her tone. She looked at Jake again. "Jerry is part of our clan and we want to do whatever we can to help him heal."

"It can't hurt, Doc." Jake shrugged. "And it might even help him in the long run."

"Any port in a storm." the doctor smiled. "We've been using some of the plants from your world to help heal our people here and I've been studying those plants and their properties. It'd be nice to have a hands-on expert to help out." he said. "Like I said, it's a damn miracle he's even alive right now, but he'd be quite dead without all these machines here. Right now, they're what's keeping him alive. If he survives this, we'll eventually unhook him from the machines, but he has an artificial heart now, one that will require periodic maintenance, once he's off the machines here, that is if he survives."

He turned to Neytiri. "And perhaps we can teach you a few things about human healing."

Neytiri smiled wanly. "That would be good. I want my brother to get well and I want to help him heal." She gestured to the banks of machines surrounding her brother's bed. "These are keeping him alive, you say?"

He nodded. "And none of this would be possible without one thing."

"What would that be?" Jake asked.

"Unobtanium." the doctor answered. "It's is what makes all this technology work at its best." He waved around the room. "Jerry would be dead right now if it weren't for that."

Neytiri turned to Jake. "Call Mother on Jerryhandelman's communication machine. Tell her what has happened. She will know what to use and what to get and will send them here." Jake nodded. "Right on it, honey. I'll have to talk to that guy who works for the President." he left the room.

Jerryhandelman's doctor motioned to the other hospital bed a couple meters from the one on which Jerryhandelman lay. "Neytiri, if you would like, you can rest on that bed there. It's a little small for you, but you can curl up on it. I imagine you'll be here for a bit."

She nodded to him. "I shall do that, Toktor, when I need it."

Neytiri knelt down and began a silent prayer to the Great Mother over Jerryhandelman. _O Great Mother. Help me heal my brother Jerryhandelman. Help me to bring him back to us. Help me._

In another room, right next to this one, a television was on. The President of the United States was speaking. Neytiri did not hear her because her mind was somewhere else.

She would do everything she could to help Jerryhandelman heal. Jake needed him. She needed him. _Hear me, O Great Mother. Help me heal this man, my brother, Jerryhandelman._


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18: A Time To Rest

The hours passed. Neytiri slept on the little bed, then returned to her vigil. After a while, she went back to the big room where the Na'vi were staying. Jake had gone to Pandora to speak directly with her mother and was not back yet. She told the other Na'vi that Jerryhandelman had not awoken yet. They promised her they would pray for him. She took a few, fitful hours of sleep. She got to meet a man who was helping them, someone who said he worked for the President of the United States.

She returned to her vigil at Jerryhandelman's side. The doctors told her he was showing signs of improvement, but that he still had not awoken yet. This news made her feel much better. She continued her vigil. She wondered if Jake would be back soon.

Much later, hours later, in fact, he returned, with a surprise.

"Mother!" Neytiri exclaimed at the sight of her mother with her mate.

"Jake told me what happened. I knew I must come here at least this one time to see what I can do to help." She held up a basket full of various herbs and healing remedies. "So I brought this for you, my daughter. I know you want to help heal our brother, Jerryhandelman."

Neytiri took the basket at set to the side. "I thank you for this, mother, and I am glad you are here, but what of the clan? Who is leading things now?"

"Do not worry of the clan. The clan will take care of itself for now, I will be returning home very soon and when I do, I will keep the clan going until you and Jake return. This I promise you. You are needed here, to help our brother."

She turned to the healer doctor. "And you are Jerryhandelman's healer? You are the healer who helped him so he could breathe our world's air?"

"Yes I am, ma'am. I'm Dr. Tim Hansen. I can assure you Jerry is getting the best possible care we can give him, but we definitely can use any help for him we can get."

"And you will get it from my daughter. What I have brought here for her to use will help him, when he wakes up. I have trust that you are doing everything you can to help him, Toktor Hansen."

"That we are." the doctor said. He turned to Jake.

"Jerry's showing signs of improvement. I think he might awaken soon.

Jake nodded. Mo'at looked at Jake, then Neytiri. "And now, I will return home. My daughter, however long it takes, I know you will do everything you can to heal Jerryhandelman and help him to bring about peace between our worlds. If you need more healing materials, you can contact Maxpatel at the Hell's Gate place. I have left more there with him and of course I will get you whatever you need. May Eywa be with you."

"Yes mother." was all Neytiri could say, feeling the weight of this burden upon her shoulders.

Mo'at left, and Jake and Neytiri returned to Jerryhandelman's bedside.

A while later, how much later, she was not sure, he stirred. He was awakening at long last!

They both leaned over him. His eyes fluttered open and focused on them.

"Jake, Neytiri, where am I?"

"You're in the hospital next door to your building, the same hospital you got operated on a few months back. Dr. Hansen is right here too. He's the one who fixed you up."

Dr. Hansen stepped forward. "Welcome back, Jerry." he said.

Jerryhandelman smiled weakly. "Good to see you again, Tim. How long have I been out?"

"Two, almost three days now." Jake answered looking at him. "It's been a little crazy out there, but we've been right here, with you, Neytiri mostly, since you got out of surgery, but now I'm here and we're both here, for you, Jerry."

"The other Na'vi? How are they?"

"They're just fine," Jake said, looking at Neytiri, his voice starting to break a little, "they're back in the storeroom you set up for us. They're just waiting until you're well enough so we can talk to the president and the other leaders. There's a guy who works for the President over there right now, helping us out as much as he can."

Jerryhandelman pondered that for a moment. "What about Norm, the others?"

"Norm's over with the Na'vi right now. He got hit, but not badly. He's all patched up now."

"Scott, Scott Bellovin. How's he doing? Tom Anderson?"

Jake paused for a long moment. "Scott didn't make it, Jerry. I'm sorry. Tom's barely hanging on. They don't expect he'll survive."

Jerry cried softly for a few moments. "Scott was a good friend."

"Yes, he was a good man. He died defending us. I'll not forget that, ever."

"I shot that guy. I killed him, didn't I?"

"Yes, you nailed that sonofabitch deader than dog snot, Jerry. You saved my life. You saved all of us. He got what he deserved."

Jerryhandelman started crying again. "I thought I could get through this life without killing anyone. I guess not." he said, still crying.

"When you killed him, you saved my life." Jake said, his voice breaking again. Neytiri took his hand and held it in hers. "Jerry, you're the hero, not me. You really don't realize just how far off you were, don't you?"

"What do you mean?" Jerryhandelman asked, confused.

"You were way, way off about how many people don't like the RDA, Jerry. Way, way off."

"Every day now, more and more Sky People are coming forward and speaking out against the people who hurt us because of you and what you did to save us, Jerryhandelman. All of the Sky People now know what the evil people who hurt us did to us, because of you. You are our hero." Neytiri spoke, looking at Jake.

Jake looked at Jerryhandelman for a long moment. "You're the hero of the day, and I can't thank you enough for that, Jerry. Because of you, I learned who my brother really was. Because of you, I truly got to know him and care about him. I lost my brother once and I wasn't there for him and when I saw him lying there on the pavement, dying in front of me, I was afraid I would lose him all over again."

"I'm still here." Jerryhandelman said weakly, but firmly. "I said I would protect you, didn't I? I said no one would hurt you if I had anything to do with it, right? Over my dead body, if I recall correctly, is how I said it."

"Yes you did." Jake said, tears streaming down his cheeks. Neytiri clutched his hand. "And protect us you did."she said.

"Since I'm still here, that must make me a man of my word." Jerryhandelman said, smiling.

"Yes you are." Jake said. "You're a man of your word, Jerry."

Jerryhandelman looked at Neytiri with those deep blue eyes of his. "And like all good Tsahiks, your wife cares about everyone in her clan, including her crazy geek brother-in-law."

"Especially her crazy geek brother-in-law." Jake answered, still holding Neytiri's hand.

"Well, it would have been very rude of me to go and get myself killed now, wouldn't it?" Jerryhandelman said, weakly but still somehow, showing his soul to them. "Because that would have deprived your children of growing up without knowing their crazy physics geek Sky Person uncle now, wouldn't it? That would have been very rude of me."

"Yes, I suppose it would." Neytiri said, tears rolling her cheeks too.

"Well, it'll take more than this to keep a guy like me down. I intend to be around for quite a while longer. I intend to see these kids of yours grow up and to do that, I need to stick around for quite a while longer, which is exactly what I'll do for you. Of course I can hardly call you my little brother Jake, when you're almost a meter taller than me even though I've got a good twenty-five years on you and I can hardly call Neytiri my little sister when she is almost a half a meter taller than me, even if I'm almost thirty years older than she is."

Jake smiled, "Right on both counts, brother." he paused for a moment, "And now that you've protected us, we're going to protect you, Jerry. We won't let them do anything bad to you, we promise you that. After what you've done for us, now it's our turn to stand up for you." He looked at Neytiri with those eyes that had stolen her heart. "We're gonna be right here, with you, at your side, for as long as it takes, Jerry. Either me, Neytiri, or Norm will right here, with you, no matter what happens."

"Good," Jerryhandelman said, beginning to drift off. "That's good."

Neytiri put her other hand on his chest, right over the machine that had replaced his heart. "You maybe Sky People on the outside, but you are Na'vi in here, my brother, even if your heart is now a machine. You rest now, brother. You must get your strength back so you can heal." she said, in Na'vi.

"Rest. That's a good idea." he put his hand over hers. "Yes, that's a very good idea, dude." he said, smiling. "If I'm a member of the Omaticaya Clan, then you're a Geek now too, my sister."

She nodded to him through her tears. "Dude." she smiled, "you'll get better now." She put her hand on his and Jake put his other hand on top of hers.

The Tsahik of the Omaticaya clan and her mate held the newest member of their clan and their brother in their hearts as a new day began.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19: In Which The Subject of Food is Discussed and Neytiri Learns About Human Healing

Later on that day, Norm came by. His wound was healing, but his shoulder was still bandaged.

"How are you, Normspellman?" Neytiri asked him, concerned about him.

"I'm doing better." he said. "I'll take over here and keep Jerry company. You're both needed over at the storeroom with the other Na'vi. Harold Vance, that guy with the President, needs to see both of you."

"He's over there now?" Jake asked.

"Yes. And he'd like to talk to you and the rest of the Na'vi."

"Jerry, you will be right?" Neytiri said, worried about her brother's welfare.

"I'll be fine. You should get going and talk to that guy."

Norm held up the box containing the chess set Jerry had shown her earlier. "We'll play a few games and keep each other company until one of you comes back over to take over." he said.

With that, Jake and Neytiri left the building. It always amused Neytiri how they had to stoop under the doorways and down the stairwell until they got out into the world outside the building. They stepped out through the main door of the hospital building and were met there by two warriors from the Russian Clan. Jake had told her they were part of something call the "United Nations Peacekeeping Force" and were there to protect the Na'vi delegation and Jerry. He'd said the whole area around the hospital and the other building were surrounded by these soldiers. "Right now, there aren't enough American soldiers here to protect us yet." he had told her yesterday. "They're stretched pretty thin with the riots and all that, but they'll be here sooner or later."

It was a short walk over to the building where Jerry worked. The air outside was chilly, but she hardly noticed. Perhaps this man who worked for the American Clan leader might have some answers.

-SCENE BREAK-

Haroldvance was a small man for a human, shorter than Jerry, she was sure, but still with a commanding presence. He was in the big room Jerry had prepared for them. He was waiting for them when they came in through the door.

"Ah, Jake and Neytiri." he said, holding out his hand to them. He shook Jake's hand, then hers. "President Abernathy sent me over here today to see what else you might need." he told them.

"You are her assistant, right?" Jake asked him.

"One of them, at any rate. Right now, my job is to see that you're all comfortable and settled in here and to see to your needs while you're here with us." he finished.

He gestured around the room. "I don't speak your language, but a couple of your people here speak some of our language and I understand that you speak our language, Neytiri?" he asked.

"Yes. I speak Inglisi." she said after a moment.

"And I speak some Na'vi, though I am learning more and more from my wife and others." Jake said. "There shouldn't be any translation problems with all of us."

"Good." Haroldvance said. "Can you tell your people that I am here to help them?" he asked Neytiri. She complied.

"This human is here to help us?" one of the Tsahiks asked.

"He is here to assist us and see to it that we have what we need." Neytiri said.

"Could you ask him to get us better food?" one of the other Na'vi said.

Neytiri turned to Haroldvance. "We would like to have better food than what my brother got for us." she said, holding up one of the packages of algal concentrates. "This human food is edible, but bland and we would like some meat."

"I'll see what I can do, that shouldn't be a problem," he said, "anything else?"

She gestured to the simple clothes she was wearing. "Could you see about getting us better clothing as well? These garments aren't very well fitting."

"I'd be happy too." he said, turning to leave. "If you need anything else, contact the guards with that comm link over there on the wall," he said, pointing to the wall, "and they'll get in touch with me."

He left the room.

"He seems like a nice person." Neytiri said.

"He's very friendly." Kanu remarked. "He was very nice to us when he came in this room."

"All the humans are being nice, for now. Our Great Mother controls their planetary network." Tahni answered back. "They can't afford to anger us."

"That is true." Neytiri said, "but this man seems to genuinely care about us."

"Perhaps this is a good sign." another Na'vi said.

"These warriors outside who are guarding us, they are from the Russian Clan?" Tahni asked Jake. "I talked to one of them earlier today who speaks our language." she continued. "He said they were proud to be able to protect us."

"Yes, they are Russian warriors, with the United Nations Peacekeeping Force." Jake answered. "Right at this moment, there are not enough American Clan warriors to protect us, they're stretched pretty thin right now, with the confusion and disorder following our Great Mother taking control of the human planetary network. But, I suspect we'll be getting more American warriors soon, and the Russians will be leaving us."

"That will be sad." Tahni said. "I like these Russian warriors, they seem like good people."

"They are." Neytiri said, "and I am glad they're here for us." she finished.

"And soon, we'll be getting better food." Jake said, smiling. "Now that would be a very good thing, if I don't say so myself."

Everyone agreed.

-SCENE BREAK-

Later on that day, Neytiri came back to Jerry's hospital room. She wanted to learn as much as she could about human healing. She would have to if she was to help him heal.

On this day, they would be removing the bandages from around his body.

But first, his doctor explained, they had to make themselves become as "sterile" as possible.

"We don't want to infect him with any germs. He might get sick." the doctor explained.

"Germs? What are those?" she wanted to know.

And so, the doctor and nurses explained to her about germs and about cleanliness and washing your hands and why you wanted to wear special gloves (they found very large sterile gloves for her to wear) and why you should have a mask on when dealing with an open wound.

And while they were explaining that, Jake came over and Norm returned to be with the Na'vi.

There was clearly much to learn and understand about humans healed their own!

The nurses sat him up in his bed and began unwrapping the bandages from around his chest.

Even though they were going carefully and slowly, she could see that it was hurting him, especially when they got down to the end of the wrappings.

He was clearly in pain, so she took his hands in hers. "Jerry. Look at me." He complied looking at her through pain-filled eyes. "I see you, my sister!" he said, through clenched teeth.

The wrappings came off and they could see the wounds. They were still bright and red and there needed to be much healing yet. "Toktor Hansen, I have something that can help my brother." she said to the doctor.

"What would that be?" he asked.

She held up the basket her mother had brought to this world, to this place.

"I have here a healing paste we use to help dull the pain of wounds when we wrap leaves around them for healing." she said. "It will help Jerry to heal."

"Let's try it out." the doctor said.

And so, they applied this salve to his body, over his wounds. "That stings!" he muttered, looking at her. "Don't be a baby!" she answered back, smiling at him. Jake sat on the other bed, watching the whole thing, smiling at Jerry.

"Don't sweat it, Jerry. Neytiri is just trying to help you. We all are."

"Whatever." he said, as they wrapped his wounds again.

And then, there was still more learning. The doctor explained about heart valves, machines, damaged lungs, something called "sepsis" and other bad things. She explained about some of the healing herbs her mother had brought and what they were used for.

And then, sometime later, after he had rested up, it came time to take Jerry's "rectal temperature" with an instrument called a "rectal thermometer" because they needed to know exactly what his body temperature was inside. Even with all their machines, the humans still used sometimes uses simple things for their healing, she marveled, holding this little stick in her hand.

She approached his bed. "Jerry, we have to take your rectal temperature." she announced.

He looked at the little stick in her hand, then at her. He then pulled the covers over his head and tried to hide from her.

"No!" he said, "that sucked dead donkey balls the last time they did it. No, I don't want to!"

She rolled her eyes. "Jerry, this will only take a moment and I'll try not to hurt you, my brother!" she said, with a touch of disappointment in her tone.

In response, she saw one of his hands emerge from under the covers, with its middle finger upraised at the room. Jake laughed at that, for some reason.

"No." she heard from under the covers.

She rolled her eyes again. "Jerry, this won't hurt, just bear with us." and with that, she pulled the covers down and she and the nurses rolled him over.

Jake pulled the hospital gown down around Jerry's legs and she inserted the thermometer into his hindquarters. She removed it after a moment and showed it to one of the nurses.

"36 degrees Celsius, right on the money." she said, giving that information to the doctor.

"And that is right where we want it." the doctor said, taking notes.

"You done now?" Jerry groaned.

"Yes, we're done, for now, brother. You must rest now. You need your strength back."

"Whatever." he muttered, pulling the sheets over his head again.

Jake smiled. "Take it easy, Jerry. We'll be back and we'll send Norm over to keep you company. In the meantime, Neytiri and I are going back over there to see if they've gotten us better food." and with that, they left Jerry and returned to the other room.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20: In Which Neytiri Suffers From the PTSD Blues and the Na'vi See Something Very Few Of Them Have Ever Seen Before

The next day, Haroldvance paid them a visit. He brought better food with him, much more than Jerry had brought for them. There was meat, actual meat within the food packets Harold Vance had brought for them.

"Enjoy!" he said, "most humans don't have the luxury of eating this kind of food, but in your case, we'll make an exception and because you're our guests, we're honored to share this food with you." he finished.

The food was excellent, if still a little bland. Evidently it had been prepared earlier and put in these packages to preserve it. Still, it was better than the bland, tasteless food Jerry had brought for them to eat.

"Mmm, this food is excellent!" Kanu said, savoring a hunk of meat. "What kind of meat is this?" he asked Neytiri, who then asked Normspellman that question.

"It's called 'beef' and it comes from animals called 'cows' that we humans raise for meat. But there are not enough cows around to feed everyone like this, so this kind of meat really is a luxury for most humans."

"Yes, this is good." Tahni answered her mate. "Jerryhandelman gave us a little of this kind of food a few days ago." She turned to Neytiri, "And how is our brother Jerryhandelman doing today?"

"He is getting better, slowly. Jake is over there with him now. Still, it will take him a long time to heal." she finished.

"Is he eating as well as we are?" Tahni asked.

"They're feeding him food through tubes, then when they think he is ready, they'll start feeding him the algal concentrates." Neytiri said, crinkling her nose at what she thought of that.

"They're feeding him that stuff? No wonder it is taking him such time to heal." Kanu said, a touch of disbelief in his tone. "If we get such good human food, then he should too."

"Yes." Neytiri said, turning to Harldvance. "I want for my brother Jerry Handelman to get as good food as we are getting."

"I can see what I can do." he said, "in the meantime, we're getting you guys some better clothing." he finished, trying to dodge the subject.

"This is a good thing, but I want Jerry to have better food." she said, and others among her people agreed. "He should eat as well as we do." one muttered.

"Can you bring some of this food here?" Neytiri asked. "We can prepare it here for him."

"Uh, yeah, we can do that." Haroldvance said, turning to leave the room. "It'll be a lot easier if you guys want to cook his food for him. Sure, we can do that." he said, heading toward the door.

Neytiri turned to Normspellman. "Normspellman, when this food comes for Jerry, you will show me how prepare it for Jerry." she pointed to the little living place Jerry had here. "You will show me how to prepare it in that place so I can bring him his food."

Normspellman looked at her dubiously for a moment. "Uh sure, Neytiri, I'll be happy to help out." He looked at the living place. "I'm not sure you can fit in that place along with me."

"Then let's find out." she said, urging him into the little place.

She had to duck under the doorway and it was crowded, but both of them could fit inside this space. "This will be good. I can make him his food here and you will help me." she said.

"Sure. No problem." Normspellman said.

Jerry's little pet animal wandered in to the little room, looking for food. She picked it up and held it in her hands. It made the strange call these animals made, a sound unlike she'd ever heard before. She smiled at it as it looked up at her.

"Isn't it a little funny that the Cat People are taking care of Jerry's cat while he is healing?" she asked Normspellman.

"Yeah, it is kind of funny now that you mention it. I think Jerry would call that ironic." he said.

And then Neytiri sat down on the little bed in the little room.

And her world came crashing down around her shoulders.

She started crying. In fact, she started bawling her eyes out.

That terrible, awful moment when she was outside this building, huddling on the ground behind Jake as those horrible men tried to kill him, Jerry standing there resolute and ready to fight to the death for them, his gun at the ready, that moment came back to her like a herd of stampeding Sturmbeests, her heart crashing with fear, the sounds of the gunshots, Jerry falling over, mortally wounded, his blood all over them, all over her. It was just like that moment in the battle right after Seze had been killed. She was terrified then, and she was terrified when Jerryhandelman had fought for them and she was truly terrified now.

That moment returned and tore her soul apart. She wanted to get away from here, to take Jake back to their world, to get away from this planet of murders and thieves and people who would kill for no good reason. She barely noticed when Normspellman and Kanu helped her up and took her to the bed she and Jake shared here. And there, she cried and cried until she could cry no more.

She returned to herself much later, her soul an empty husk, feeling Jake's arms around her and Tahni holding her hand.

"You're better now?" Jake asked her.

"No, my love. I am remembering the moment when Jerry fought for us. I cannot get that moment from my mind, my Jake. I cannot ever forget that moment." she whispered, looking into his eyes for solace, for comfort, for love.

"I'll never forget it either." Jake said. "Jerry and his people stood for us and they protected us, they protected me from death. But Neytiri, I was scared too."

She looked at him in disbelief. "You were afraid too?"

"Yes. I was. I didn't know what was going to happen. I just wanted to get you and everyone back into the lab here, back to safety. I didn't know if Jerry would actually do it, fight for us, I mean. I was terrified something would happen to you, Neytiri."

"And I too was very scared." Tahni added. "I was afraid we were about to die, all of us." she said very slowly and carefully, her gaze never leaving Neytiri. "I've never been more scared in my life, Neytiri of the Omaticaya, not even when we fought against the Sky People."

She looked at her mate, the man who had tamed the mighty Toruk, and then the leader of the Eastern Sea clan. "But you are Toruk Macto and you are a fierce warrior, Tahni, and a fine leader of your clan. You were both scared?"

"Yes, I am a fine warrior," Tahni said, "but that does not mean I cannot be afraid. On that day, at that moment, I too was afraid."

"We all were." said another Olo'eyktan, from one of the other beds. "Jerryhandelman fought for all of us when he fought against those evil men."

"Yes. Yes he did." Jake answered, as if coming to a decision. "And soon, we must stand up and fight for him, when the time comes to talk to the leaders of Earth."

"This we will do." Tahni agreed.

"Neytiri, you're just suffering from what we call 'PTSD' and it is nothing to be afraid of." Jake said to her. "Everyone who fights in war suffers from it."

"PTSD?" she asked. "What is that?"

"It is just a way of saying you suffered a traumatic event and your mind is reliving that moment." Jake said, "It is nothing to be afraid of. I am here for you, my Neytiri. No matter what."

"If you're here, who is with Jerry right now?" she said, looking around.

"Norm is. He came over and told me you were hurting. I left him with Jerry and came back here to be at your side."

She hugged him and nestled her head against his shoulder. "I just want this to be over."

"It will be soon, as soon as our brother Jerryhandelman is well." Tahni said, putting her head on Neytiri's shoulder.

"And we're going to get him better food. I think I'll sneak back to Pandora a little later on, perhaps with one or two of our number here and we'll go hunting around Hell's Gate. We'll see if we can't scare up a Yerik or two we can butcher and bring back here. We'll have a taste of home and we can even share it with Jerry. That would be good, wouldn't it?" he finished.

Neytiri smiled through her tears. "Yes, that would be very good, my love."

"And we might even be able to give Haroldvance and some of the humans a taste of our world if we have enough meat to spare." Tahni said, looking at Jake. "Eywa chose well when she chose you to be Toruk Macto, Jakesully. This is a brilliant idea of yours."

"It sure is." he said.

"And," Tahni continued, "we will help you to help your brother, our brother, Jerryhandelman. Neytiri of the Omaticaya, this burden shall not be yours alone." she finished.

And so, they held onto each other as the day wore on.

-SCENE BREAK-

Later on, Haroldvance returned. "We have more food for you, and you can prepare it for Dr. Handelman right here." he said. "We'll be storing it in this box here." he indicated, as two other men brought a large box into the room. "This is something we call a 'refrigerator' and it will keep the meat cold and preserved so you can eat it whenever you want."

"This is good, Haroldvance, and my mate will be returning to our world to do some hunting, perhaps later today or tomorrow. He will bring back some of the meat we eat there and we can perhaps share it with you."

"That would be fine." he said, clasping his hands together.

Then, she noticed that the outer garment he was wearing, as well as the garments the other men were wearing were dusted with a white, fluffy powder.

"Haroldvance, what is that on your clothing?" she asked him.

"It's called, uh, 'snow' in our language. It is just crystals of ice, falling down out of the sky."

"Snow?" she and others were puzzled.

"It's snowing outside?" Jake asked him.

"Yes. It started a couple hours ago and it's not letting up. We've gotten about 10 centimeters in the past hour or so."

"What is snow?" Neytiri asked.

Jake looked around. "I don't suppose it would hurt too much. Follow me, everyone and I'll show you. This will be just a minute or two."

Almost in a trance, she and the others followed him out the door, into the narrow hallway, and up the stairs. They emerged onto a changed world outside the building, one they had never seen before.

The world was covered in white, a thin layer of white flakes, just like what Haroldvance had dusted all over him. A gray, drab urban landscape had been transformed into a wonderland of whiteness.

"Snow day." Jake said, smiling as he looked at her.

She and the others walked out into this snow, in total wonderment. This was something they had never seen before.

She reached down and felt it on her fingers, piling up a little bunch of it in her hands.

"It's so cold," she noticed, "but it is melting in my hand."

"That's because it is actually water, crystals of frozen water that are melting in your hands." Haroldvance said, looking around, "and because it's rather cold today, it's not coming down as rain, as it would if it were warmer. "It's coming down as snow instead."

Jake was romping around like a child. Suddenly, a clod of snow hit her in the chest. "Got ya!" he laughed.

She reached down and balled up her own clod of snow and threw it at him. "Take that, my Jake!" she laughed back. And suddenly, clods of snow were flying around like thickets of stingbats.

They all romped around, playing and laughing like children, for many minutes until someone realized that they were actually getting rather cold and it might be worthwhile to get back into the warmth and safety inside the building.

Neytiri looked around before they returned to the building, as the snow still fell around her. If nothing else, this one thing, this one day, was worth the trip to Earth, she decided.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21: In Which Neytiri Finds God, Jerry Handelman Finds Out What Is Wrong With Him, And Max Patel Provides Us With a Little Comic Relief (Not Necessarily In That Order)

The snow had melted away by the next morning. What had been a wonderland of white returned to its drab, soulless, urban desert, with hardly a trace of greenery. But, there was still much to do and much to be learned if she was to be able to help her brother heal. Jake needed him, the Na'vi needed him, she needed him to be as rested and healed as possible when it came time to meet with the American president and the other leaders.

So, she would bring him some good, solid, human food for his first meal of the day. Jake and another of the Na'vi leaders were both back hunting around Hell's Gate for a Yerik (or two) they could butcher and send back to this world. He would not be back until later, perhaps not until tomorrow.

In the meantime, she and Norm and the others would help Jerry heal. She admitted to herself that it was good that Tahni and the others were helping her. It gave them something to do while they waiting for Jerry to heal.

She entered the hospital building, accompanied by two soldiers from the American clan. They told her the Russians would be leaving very soon. She would miss them, these strange warriors in their blue helmets and blue vests.

She entered Jerry's room. His doctor was there with him when she came in. "Ah, Neytiri, you brought Jerry's food. Good!" he said, clapping his hands together.

"We have plenty of it now, and we all feel Jerry should share in this food. It is better than the other stuff he's been eating."

Jerry looked at the plate before him. "Beef? You got real beef? Damn! I must really be special to deserve this." he said, smiling. "That beef I got for you guys was kind of a fluke, I have to confess, but getting some like this now, I must be somebody now to be worthy of this."

"Yes you are, brother. And I intend for you to get the best care the humans can give you, and that includes getting you the best food possible." she said, looking at the doctor.

"No complaints here, Neytiri." the doctor said. "Anything that will help Jerry heal faster is fine with me. Speaking of which, you got any more of that ointment left? We're running out of it for him and it seems to be doing a very good job on him."

"I can get some, Toktor Hansen. I will ask Jake to bring more from Pandora when he returns."

"Excellent." the doctor said, "and with that, I have to keep on my rounds. I'll check in with you later, Jerry." He nodded to Neytiri, "and that the good Lord and/or Eywa that your sister-in-law is helping you to heal. She's doing an excellent job.

"It is my duty as Tsahik, Toktor, but Jerry is also family to me, so it is very important to me he get the best healing possible."

"And that is exactly what we're going to do for your brother-in-law, Neytiri." the doctor said as he left the room. "Take care, see you all later." he finished.

Neytiri sat on the little bed across from Jerry's bed. He was sitting up now, and only had a few tubes and such in him now. He was able to carry on conversations for longer now and was able to stay up and about for much longer. His doctor had even allowed him to use his "datawindow" now to keep track of his communications from and to other humans around the world. "The Great Mother hasn't shut the network off," he'd told her yesterday, "she's just put her thumb over it, which is why it didn't take very long to calm everyone down after the takeover, life goes on, and all that. So I might as well try to get some work done while I can."

She watched him while he ate, her head resting on her hands. "You are liking this meal, Jerry?" she asked him.

"Yes, this is great! I don't get steak very often and when I do, I savor it. I'm luckier than most people because most of the human race has never had real meat of any kind. It's something of a luxury item these days. Thank you for getting this for me!" he said, wolfing down a mouthful.

She smiled. "You're welcome, brother."

"And the rest of the Na'vi, how are they doing?" he asked her.

"They're fine, and they will be helping me to help you. It is the best way for all of us to help you get better so you can sit with us and negotiate with the Earth leaders."

"That's a good thing, Neytiri." he said, carving up his beef steak with expert hands.

"And," she said, "we might be able to get you some even better food, when my Jake returns from our home."

"He's on Pandora?"

"Yes, he's hunting for Yerik to butcher and bring back for us so we can have a taste of home in addition to your human food." she said, looking out the window.

"That's good," he said.

She looked up into the sky. There was a bright, glowing crescent orb in the sky.

She pointed. "That is your world's Moon?" she asked.

"Yes." he said. "And if you look carefully, you see all those lights all over it? You can see them better on the dark side, next to the crescent that is lit up by the Sun?"

She nodded.

"Those are cities up there, on our Moon. There are billions of our people who live and work up there, on our Moon. They live underneath great domes, kilometers high, connected to each other by shafts and tunnels that run all over our Moon."

She looked up in wonderment, seeing a twinkling constellation of lights on the Moon, and realized that many billions of humans lived there, where those lights were.

"You have been there, to your Moon?" she wanted to know.

"Yeah, a couple times, for my work. It is a lot like here, only more confined, because there's no air you can breathe up there. That's why our cities up there are under the domes, so people can live there without having to wear special suits all the time."

She looked down the street. There was a building in the distance, a large building, with a strange structure atop it, like two straight beams, one short, one long, and the short beam directly across the longer one.

"Jerry, my brother, what is that building down there?" she asked, pointing to it.

He looked at the window. "Oh, that's just a church, it's where some of the Sky People worship our God, or one of them, at least. If you look down the road a little bit further, you'll see a building with a star symbol next to a crescent moon shape. See it?'

She looked, and yes, there it was.

"What building is that for? Another of your Sky People gods?"

"Yeah, sort of. It's a mosque, it is where Sky People who call themselves Muslims worship around here, even though they worship the same God as the Christians, who worship in that church right down there. And if you look down the street the other direction, you'll see a building with a different star-shaped symbol, this one with six points, see it?"

She got up and looked and yes, off in the distance, was another building with a symbol shaped like a six-pointed star atop its roof.

"That's called a synagogue, and the people who worship there are called Jews. They also worship the same God as the Christians and the Muslims, because they're all People of the Book."

"The Book? What is that?" she wanted to know.

"Uh, it was from a long time ago, when the Jews and Muslims were living in a place called the Sinai, they were two tribes of Sky People who had the same ancestors and they worshiped the same God, even though the Jews called Him Yaweh and the Muslims called him Allah. Both tribes told stories about their God and wrote them down a long time ago, and put them in a big Book."

"And these 'Christians' they are also of 'People of the Book' like the Muslims and the Jews?"

"Yes, sort of. They came from the Jews. A long time ago, when the Jewish tribe was living in the desert, they were under the rule of a people called the Romans. There arose among the Jews a very wise man called Jesus. He said he was the Son of God and had come to Earth to fulfill the ancient prophecy the Jews had gotten from a Jew named Moses a long time before that one day among their number would arise a Messiah who would lead them to freedom and to God. He preached many truths to the Jews, and said many wise things. Some Jews started following him and he began to raise unrest among the Jews, which made the Romans angry. They didn't want the place where the Jews lived to be unruly. It was called Palestine and it was a very important province in the Roman Empire, at least in that part of it, because it was a crossroads. A lot of Sky People came and went through it on their way to and from other lands. So, they had their allies among the Jewish leadership call for the arrest of this Jesus for blasphemy, which they did, along with a demand that the Romans put him on trial and execute him, which they did."

She recoiled. "These Romans, they killed this man? How cruel!"

"Yes. They arrested him and since the Jewish "leadership" at the time were calling for him to die, the Romans did what the Jewish leaders asked. That way they could say they were just carrying out the wishes of the Jewish leaders, and they would get what they wanted, which was a Palestine that was happy and pacified, rather than unruly and upset."

"But these Christians, they came from the Jews?" she asked.

"Yes. Even though the Romans killed Jesus, it was said by his followers that he came back to life three days later and then went to Heaven to be with his Father, the God of the Jews. It was said that he promised his followers that he would return one day for them and would bring justice to the world, or something like that. So, his followers started calling themselves 'Christians' in his honor. Not that I believe a word of any of this, even though I'm a Jew, I am a thoroughly secular Jew, you understand."

"Thoroughly secular Jew? What does that mean?"

"Uh, it just means that I really don't believe in all those old stories about God or the Gods, whether you want to call God Yaweh, Allah, or just God. I'm not really religious, even though I was raised Jewish. I'm what we call an 'agnostic' because I don't really believe in God or any deities of any kind, even if others do. I and other agnostics say we can't ever know if there really is a God or not. As for myself, I don't really believe in God or any kind of deity." he said.

She glared at him for a second.

"But my mind could be changed in that regard!" he added quickly.

She smiled. "You may not believe in Eywa, but Eywa believes in you, Jerry."

"Yeah, I suppose, but like I say, even though most humans of the American clan are Christians, there are some Jews and some Muslims here, and many Americans worship other Gods besides the God of the Jews, Christians, and Muslim, and many are like me. They don't really believe in God or any of that sort of thing."

"But those Americans that do, the Christians among the American clan, they think of their God as the One True God?"

"Yes. And the Muslims think Allah is the One True God, and the Jews think the Christians and the Muslims are both wrong, which has caused a lot anger and strife among all three faiths for a very long time."

"Why can't your clan agree to worship just one God, like the Christians, Muslims, and Jews do?" she asked, mystified.

"Because very few people who believe in God want to let other people believe in their own God, or not believe, if they want to. Some want to impose their idea of God on the rest of us, and that makes a lot of people very angry." he said.

She shook her head. "This is so confusing, my brother. You have too many Gods, you humans of the American Clan."

"And we're not the only one. There are other clans that worship other Gods, and there are Christians, Muslims, and Jews in those other clans too, as well as those who do not worship or believe in any God, like me."

She smiled at him. "Maybe not now, but someday, my brother, I will show you Eywa's way and you too will believe."

"Perhaps. Anyway, that church down there is a big worship center around here and it's where there are a lot of big religious events and gatherings, things like funerals, weddings, and the like."

"Weddings? What are those?"

"Uh, that's when a man and a woman, or sometimes two men or two women, who are Christians or at least say they are, get married before the Christian God. They make a promise to each other to honor and obey each other and commit to each other until they are parted in death, and their families are there to witness this important ceremony, and afterward, they are considered mated before the Christian God. Anyway, that is what happens in that church, but there are other ways of marriage among the Sky People."

She pondered that for a moment, remembering the night she and Jake and chosen each other as mates in the Na'vi way. "I wonder, could I get married at a church, in the Sky People way?" she said, thinking out loud.

"I don't know, it's possible." he answered after a moment. She could see him thinking about it.

"It's not important right now. You're finished with your meal. I'll take your dishes back to the other place." she said, getting up.

"Here you go and thanks again." he said.

"No problem, as you like to say, Jerry." she said smiling as she left the room.

-SCENE BREAK-

She returned a little while later to check in on him. His doctor was back.

"Neytiri, you're back. Glad you're here. We're about to contact Maxpatel."

"Really, here, in this room?" she asked him.

"Well, through Jerry's comm link back to your world. He wants to share some medical information about Jerry with us."

He pointed to a monitor near the bed. "We'll be seeing him there in a moment."

He did something at another machine and in a moment, Maxpatel was on the screen!

"Maxpatel! It is you!" she marveled.

"Hi Neytiri, yes it's me, Max and I'm here at Hell's Gate." He looked out through the monitor and waved at Jerry. "Hi Jerry." he said.

"Hi Max." Jerry said, with little enthusiasm.

"Maxpatel, is Jake there with you?" she wanted to know.

"Yes, he and the other Olo'eyktan are here, at Hell's Gate. They're downstairs right now, in the armory, cutting up the Yerik they caught earlier today. They'll be sending the meat back first before they come back and as you can imagine, they're pretty busy right now. Otherwise they'd be here with me right now."

"This is good. The toktor here is helping Jerry to heal very well." she said.

"So I hear." he replied, looking toward Jerry's doctor.

"So Max, you have those brain scans from Jerry? I want to see those." he said.

"I can do you one better, Tim. I can send you the brain scans directly, along with all the other medical data we have on Jerry here at Hell's Gate. All of it, I can send it your way and it'll only take a few moments to download the whole file, scans and all."

"Great. Let's have it." the doctor said.

Machines started humming and then, a few moments later, the doctor went to another machine. He picked up a "datawindow" similar to the one Jerry had and walked over to the monitor.

"Hm, Max, this does look interesting." he said and then proceeded to talk to Max about things she could not fathom. They talked for several minutes and at the end of which, Max was about to end the connection, but he looked at Neytiri for a moment before doing so.

"Neytiri, before I sign off, I just wanted you to know one thing, how proud I am that you're helping to heal Jerry."

She smiled. "You're too kind to me, Maxpatel."

"I'm behind you one thousand percent."

"Why thank you, Maxpatel, even if I don't know what a 'thousand percent' is."

"It just means I've got your back, I'm right behind you, and I'm the wind beneath your wings." Maxpatel said, smiling broadly. "You rock my world, Neytiri."

She noticed that Jerry and his doctor were both smiling, Jerry trying desperately not to break out laughing. "What is so funny?" she demanded.

"Uh, it's just that I think Max has the hots for you, Neytiri."

"Hots?" she said, then looked at Maxpatel. He started laughing and the other two men immediately joined him. They were laughing at her! "I am not amused!" she yelled.

"Don't worry about it, Neytiri, we're just having a little fun at your expense, is all."

After a few moments, she started smiling at him. "Well, if this will make you feel better, then perhaps it is not a bad thing, my brother, but don't do this again, or I might get mad at you." she muttered at him, trying not to be too angry with him.

And with that, Maxpatel "signed off" and the screen went blank.

"Now if you'll both excuse me, I have to check on some things that Max sent me." the doctor said, leaving the room. "I'll be back later." he said, looking at the datawindow as he walked out of the room. Neytiri watched him disappear into the hallway.

"Jerry, what are 'hots'" she asked her brother.

"You don't want to know, not right now." he said with a straight face, but with a twinkle in his eye, and laughter in his soul.

Humans are strange, she finally concluded.

-SCENE BREAK-

Later on that day, she came back, with another meal for Jerry. The doctor was back, and he did not look happy.

"Jerry," he wanted to know. "How many trips did you make between here and Pandora through your little teleportation thing over there in your basement?"

"Uh, I don't remember, eight or ten times, maybe a dozen? Is it important?"

"Yes. It's important. And how much time did you spend on Pandora, breathing the air their without an exopack?"

"Damned if I know, Tim! I can't remember, it was a total of many days, I think!" her brother grumbled, a petulant tone to his voice. "Why do you want to know?"

"Because these brain scans I got from Max after you are telling me you have some major brain damage, most of which we fixed, but the aftereffect are still there and those aftereffects may be with you for the rest of your life, Jerry. That's why." the doctor said, a trace of anger in his tone.

"What do you mean?" Jerry asked, now sounding unsure. Neytiri was curious too, but she was starting to get worried. Was her brother's health in danger?

She asked that of the doctor. "Yes, his health may have been compromised. I think I fixed you up pretty well, Jerry, but the damage is done. I am not sure at all that I repaired all of it or even if I found all of it, or whether all of it can be fixed, for that matter. What the hell were you thinking, Jerry? That teleportation chamber, the operation I gave you, both of those were untested."

"Hold on a minute, Tim. You operated on me and I told you to make the procedure be rated for the Pandoran atmosphere, remember. Well guess what, it worked. I could breathe that world's air."

"But only for a while, Jerry, and not for an indefinite period, and you never even told me you were actually going to Pandora. If I'd have known that, I would have done everything differently."

He looked at Neytiri. "Your brother-in-law here never told me he was actually going to go to your world, Neytiri. For reasons of his own, he didn't tell me."

"I'm sorry, Tim, I just couldn't bring you into the loop, not quite yet. I had to do what I had to do. I'm sorry, it was never anything to do with you."

"Jerry, you damn near got yourself killed." He turned to Neytiri. "You may think of your brother-in-law here as Na'vi, but he's still in a human body, a very weak, frail, human body. We're not designed to breathe your world's air, and he was breathing it for way too long. That may very well have adversely affected his health." He turned back to Jerry. "And you never even told me what you were planning. We've known each other for twenty years, Jerry. You could have talked to me about this, but you didn't!"

"I'm sorry, Tim. I really am." her brother said, lamely.

"And making all those trips back and forth through the teleportation chamber, that also apparently has hurt you, in ways we can't even begin to understand, yet, Jerry. You chose to experiment on yourself and you may very well be paying the price for that. It's why you're so tired all the time, among other things, it's why it is taking you so long to get your strength back, though Neytiri's medicine is certainly helping you in that regard. It is also why you're having some trouble thinking, but that might be fixed now. Time will tell, Jerry, but I have to tell you, you really, really fucked this one up!" the doctor muttered.

Her brother said nothing. Neytiri spoke up. "My brother did what he felt was necessary to save us, to save Jake, me, my world, my people." she said, quietly but firmly.

"And it might have cost him a few years off the end of his life and may have affected his health in such a way that he'll be permanently scarred from all this. A few more weeks of what you've been doing before you got to me and you'd probably be a dead man, Jerry. You're not young anymore, you know. Your sister-in-law might think you're a Na'vi, but you are still a human and you goddamn know well we're not as tough as they are."

"Yeah, I suppose. But hey, at least you can name this condition after me, call it Handelman's Syndrome or something. Gotta look at the bright side, Tim."

"Very funny." the doctor said, clearly not thinking it was funny at all. This must be more of that Sarcasm her brother was fond of.

"Toktor, you have healed my brother on the inside. He can come back to our world, with me and Jake? He will be able to visit us?"

The doctor sighed. "Yes, Neytiri, I have fixed him up inside, and given his lungs and his system a thorough upgrade, as much as I can, but he probably will never be quite the same as he was before all this, that I can assure you. He'll be scarred."

She put her hand over Jerry's hand. "I thank you for this, Toktor, you have given Jake and I a second chance to be with our brother."

"And as soon as he's up and around, he can come visit you. But until then, he needs to rest more and heal up." the doctor concluded.

And with that, he left the room. "Well, that settles it. I'd better eat this food you brought me, Neytiri, else I'll not heal as fast." he said.

She looked at him for a second. "Yes, eat well my brother, even if you're in a human body, you're still Na'vi to me and Jake."


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22: In Which Life is Realized, Chess is Played, and Jerry Learns the Truth

Jake was back, and he'd brought meat with him, lots of it, to be precise. They would be able to eat well while they were here and there would be plenty of food for Jerry to eat as well.

So, she and Norm prepared him a special meal of Yerik meat and took it over to him.

He was resting again, but becoming more and more animated as the days wore on. He was getting better, even if his healing was uneven. He had good days and bad days, but his good days outnumbered his bad days. This day was a good day.

"Neytiri, Norm. Glad to see you!" he said, trying to sit up in his bed.

"Rest now, brother." she said, bringing the tray forward. "My Jake brought us a special treat from home and we're going to share it with you, while the nurses aren't watching."

He looked at her and Norm, questioning. "Huh?" he asked.

"We're not sure they'd be happy with you eating this kind of meat. It's Yerik mean, so we kind of snuck it in behind their backs," Norm said, looking at Neytiri slyly. "So you'd better eat up." he said, presenting the plate of food from Neytiri.

Jerry started wolfing the food down, nervously looking at the door. "I think they might be coming back soon." Norm said, again looking at Neytiri with a sly glance. He could afford to be sly, because when Jerry's doctor was in on the joke, which made things easier, she thought. Jerry had pulled a few jokes on her, so why not turn the tables on him this once? She smiled. He'd never know.

He continued to wolf down his plate of food, always looking at the door. "This is excellent, even better than the beef we had, but damn, I just wish I could enjoy it without having to eat it all at once, just about!"

"In time." Norm said, smiling a little. "In the fullness of time, grasshopper, you gain much wisdom." he finished, a broad smile all over his face.

Jerry looked at him oddly for a moment, "Whatever." he said, finishing his meal. "That was good." he said, looking at the empty plate. "Alas, poor Yerik, I ate him well."

Norm smiled at that. Neytiri looked at him, then her brother. "Literary reference, Neytiri." was all Normspellman said. She noticed both he and her brother were smiling.

"I'll take the dishes back and leave you to keep my brother company," Neytiri said, "and we'll be back later." she finished.

She went outside again, and felt the breeze on her face. It was cool outside, but nothing she could not handle. The Russian warriors were all gone now, but they'd left behind a case of something they'd called "vodka" with Haroldvance. They offered it to the Na'vi as their thank-you gift. Jake said it was a beverage humans consumed that contained something called 'alcohol' and there were many such beverages, vodka being only one of those many kinds. She might try some of it later on.

She entered the laboratory building and as soon as she came inside from the cold, she felt dizzy for a moment. It almost seemed like the walls were spinning around her. She put her hand against the wall and steadied herself. This was not the first time she had felt this way here. She had thought it was because of the air here, but now she was starting to suspect something. The dizzy spells over the past few days coupled with how she'd felt when getting up the past two or three days could not be ignored.

She thought she knew what was happening to her, but she needed to ask someone else to be sure and she knew exactly who to ask about this.

With a feeling of trepidation and rising excitement, she went back to the big room where they were staying. She had to talk to Jake about this.

He was with several other Na'vi Olo'eyktans and they were talking about the sorts of things Olo'eyktans talk about, but as soon as he saw her enter, he came over.

"Neytiri, how's Jerry?" he said, taking her arms into his.

She sat down on their bed. "He is fine. Jake, my love. We must return to Pandora. I must speak to my mother about something." she said with a smile. "I have to ask her something and I can only do it with her and I in the same place. We must go."

"Now? You want to go now?" he said, looking dubious.

"It will not take long, perhaps a day, at most. We must do this." she said, finality in her tone.

"Then let's do it." he said, getting up.

The next hour or so passed by quickly, almost as if she was in a daze. Telling the other Na'vi that they would be going back to Pandora, contacting Haroldvance to let him know, and then contacting Maxpatel to call her mother and send a Samson out to get her to meet them at Hell's Gate, it all passed by as if in a dream.

But, they had to go and tell Jerry they would be returning to Pandora, and then something bubbled up within here, something for which she was not prepared.

She didn't want to leave him here, alone.

They came to his room. His doctor was there with him, along with Haroldvance. Jerry was sitting up and talking to his doctor about something. He looked up at them as they entered his room.

She walked up to his bed, holding Jake's hand.

Jake spoke first. "Jerry, we need to tell you something. Neytiri and I are going back to Pandora for a little bit, maybe a day or so, to confer with Mo'at about something. We'll be back as soon as we can, I promise you."

"That's fine, Jake. I think I can go for a day without you or Neytiri at my side." Jerry said.

"We can't find Norm, otherwise he'd be right here." Jake said, a trace of annoyance in his voice as he spoke, "we don't know where he is."

"He was just here earlier and had to go run an errand. He said he'd be back soon." Jerry said.

"Hm, it figures he'd skip out right when we need him. You sure you'll be fine?" Jake asked.

"Yes. I'll be just fine. I'm in greater danger of dying from boredom than I am from disease while I'm here." Jerry said, with a chuckle.

Neytiri was alarmed. What was this 'boredom' of which Jerry spoke?

"Boredom? Is that some kind of disease?" she asked his doctor.

"No, it's just that he won't have anyone to talk to other than the other Na'vi while you two are gone, at least until Dr. Spelllman returns from his errand." the doctor said.

"But you will take care of him, yes?" Neytiri said, still feeling uneasy at the prospect of leaving her brother's side while he was recuperating.

"Yes, absolutely yes." the doctor said with finality.

She felt tears scratching at her eyes, but kept her voice firm. "And you will make sure he eats well and that he does not push himself too hard. He needs his rest, remember."

"No worries, Neytiri. We'll take really good care of him while you're gone." the doctor said, smiling. "Rest easy, we will not allow anything bad to happen to him."

"You'll take his temperature too, I don't want him to get a fever." she said, trying not to burst out in tears. "I don't want my brother getting sick." she said, looking at Jake, then back to Jerry.

"Neytiri, I will be fine. Go now and come back when you're done." Jerry said, pointing to the door. "I'll be just fine." he said.

And with that, they left. Jake held on to her hand all the way back to the other building and when they got to the transfer chamber room, he went first.

"I'll see you there in a little bit." he said, looking at the chamber, then back to her. They held hands, and kissed each other, a passionate kiss only two lovers could make.

"I will see you and Mother soon." she said, looking into those eyes of his that had captured her heart over the three months they trained together.

And with that, he stepped up into the chamber and disappeared.

It was not much longer before the chamber was ready for her. The 'turnaround time' was faster here to Pandora than from Pandora to here with the machine on Pandora. Jerry had tried to explain it to her once that this was because there was a 'fusion reactor' in this building. "Most people don't have one in their basement like I do, it made getting from Earth to Pandora relatively easy in terms of energy because we have a lot of it in my lab." he'd said.

In any case, she stepped into the chamber and it was an instant later, she was in the chamber on Pandora. Maxpatel and Jake were waiting for her.

"Your mother should be getting here any minute now," Maxpatel said, "the Samson was only a few kilometers out when I talked to the pilot."

"This is a good thing, Maxpatel." she said, bringing her hands together.

And true to his word, Maxpatel was right. Her mother entered the building a few minutes later, along with the pilot of the Samson that had brought her here.

"Neytiri, my daughter. You wished to see me? I am here now, for you and Jake." she said.

Neytiri motioned over to some tables at the side of the room. They both sat on the edge of one of the tables. She looked her mother in the eye.

"Mother, I think I am with child. You are very wise, so I knew only you could tell me for sure."

Mo'at looked at her only daughter for a long time, then to Jake.

"You are feeling ill in the mornings, you are feeling a little dizzy? You are feeling as though every one of your senses is suddenly very aware of what is going on around you?" Mo'at finally said.

"Yes, for the past few days, this is what I have been feeling, Mother. This is what you told me would come when I would be with child someday." she said, through a sheen of tears, as Jake put his arms around her. "I know I am carrying your grandchild, Mother." she said, as the swell of emotions finally caught up with her and carried her away.

Her mother smiled at her, "You did not need to come all the way back here to find out from me what you already knew in your heart, my daughter. But since you came this far, let us three go back to the world of the Sky People and complete this journey."

Neytiri was confused. "I don't understand, Mother."

"I will return with you to their world and we will tell the People there what you know in your heart. I will stand with you when you tell them this and they will know it is true." her mother said. "You will give me a grandchild, and if I am not mistaken, this will be only the first one, my daughter."

Jake looked at Mo'at, then Neytiri. "Uh, yeah, I'm gonna be a father now. That takes a little getting used to, that idea, but I can get used to it." He smiled at his mate. "And I'm sure we'll have more than one child, Neytiri."

She put his hand over her belly. "And our children will grow up knowing who their father is and the world that gave him life and where he came from. They will grow up understanding his birth tongue and the people he came from so they will know why he chose to become one of the People." she said, tears falling down her cheeks. "They will be children of two worlds, Jake. I know this is what Eywa wants from us. It is why She wants for there to be peace between us and the humans."

"And to do that, we must return there and settle this peace treaty." Jake said, the leader within him again coming to the fore. "So I suggest we get going."

-SCENE BREAK-

"Eywa be praised!" Kanu said, when they had heard the news from Neytiri and Mo'at. They were all gathered in the big room. There was much agreement amongst the Na'vi there, especially among the other Tsahiks. Each came to Neytiri and thanked Eywa for blessing them with a child, a child of two worlds, as Neytiri had told them.

Jake looked around the room. "Let's go over and tell Jerry that he really will be an uncle after all." he said, with a sly smile. "I'll be the one to tell him."

They went over to the hospital building. Neytiri noticed how her mother was taking in the sights and smells of this world as they walked over to the other building, escorted by warriors of the American clan. "This is such a strange world, Mother." Neytiri said after a moment, "it is so very different from our home. They don't have Eywa to guide them, they worship many Gods and some humans don't even believe in any gods at all. But they have made all this because they know so much, even without knowing our Great Mother." she said.

"Yes, but it is our world, Neytiri of the Omaticya." one of the American warriors escorting them said as they neared the entrance to the other building. "And some of us want it to be a better place, even if we're not children of your Great Mother, we still care about our world." he said.

"You speak our language?" Mo'at was surprised. Neytiri smiled at that. This was only the second time her mother had been here. It had been disconcerting to realize how many humans spoke the language of the People, but Neytiri had gotten used to it. She had been here for over a week now and had interacted with a number of humans here. Some of them indeed spoke Na'vi fluently. Others did not and had no desire to learn.

"Yes. I speak your language." the soldier said as they got to the main door. "We're here to protect you and some of us want peace between our worlds. Just because I am a warrior does not mean I want war. War between us would be bad. I hope we can have peace between us." he said.

"Yes. That would be a good thing." Mo'at said, after a moment. "That would be a very good thing indeed."

They entered the building. It was time to tell their brother the good news.

-SCENE BREAK-

"You're sure?" he told them when Jake gave him the news.

"Yes, absolutely." Mo'at said. "If my daughter says she is with child, then she is with child."

Jerry looked at Norm (long since returned from his mysterious errand) and Norm spoke.

"Congratulations are in order." he said, nodding to Jake. "Congratulations on being a dad, Jake." He then looked at Haroldvance. "And maybe we should have some champagne to celebrate."

"Ah, I will see what I can do." Haroldvance said. "Congratulations to you, Mr. Sully, and your wife, and I hope this is an auspicious start for your new family." he said.

"Well, we might have some champagne, but I'm not letting you have one sip of it." Jerry's doctor said to Neytiri. "Not while you're pregnant, the alcohol could be very bad for your child."

"Not to worry about that, Toktor." Neytiri said, "I had one little sip of the vodka the Russian warriors gave us and decided it was not a drink for me. I'll stay away from those kind of drinks."

"Good. And you know, you didn't have to go to Pandora to find out you're pregnant. You could have asked me and I would have been able to tell you." he said.

"How so?" Mo'at wanted to know.

The doctor pointed to a machine in another room. "That machine there, can look into people. It can look into your daughter's body and show you the child, if you'd like."

Neytiri was intrigued. "Yes, I would like to see this."

So, they went to that machine and the doctor told her to stand in front of it.

"Hold still." he said, after a moment, "this won't take long."

The machine hummed for a few moments, then stopped. "There we are." the doctor said. "Take a look." he pointed to a monitor on the wall.

It was her, but she looked almost like a ghost, and there, in her belly was a tiny little growth.

"We can zoom in on that." the doctor said, and a moment later, the growth had resolved itself. It was a little, tiny embryo, barely larger than her eyeball, but still a new life.

Jake took her hand, "Our first child." he said, looking into her eyes.

"Yes, the beginning of a new life." she answered.

"Let's make a copy of that." Jake asked the doctor, who complied.

They showed it to Jerry. "Damn, you know what sex it is yet?" he asked.

"Nope." Jake said, "but I'm sure we'll find out soon enough, right Doctor?" he said, looking at Jerry's doctor.

"Yeah, we can find out, if the tests that we use on human women work on Neytiri. If not, then you'll just have to wait for the kid to be born. I don't know what the gestation period is for Na'vi females, but I'd imagine it will be a while before the kid is born."

"Gest-a-tion period?" Mo'at wanted to know. "What is that, Toktor?"

"Uh, it's how long it takes a human woman to bear her baby, that's all." he said.

"Ah, it is the time between when a woman discovers she is with child to when the child is born. I don't know how long that is for Sky People, but for us, it is many months, almost one of our years."

"For humans, it's about nine of our months." the doctor said. "And by the way, Mo'at, your daughter has been quite indispensable in helping Jerry here with his healing. I don't know what it is exactly, but her knowledge of traditional medicines and herbal remedies to help your people with healing has proven to be very effective for helping Jerry to heal. I am amazed at the progress he's making. Anyone else in his condition would almost certainly still be near death's door." He pointed to the wheeled seat by Jerry's bed. "We've managed to get Jerry up and about a little bit and both Neytiri and Jake have helped him, even if he still can't walk yet, with his knee and how weak he is, but even that he's able to get around in a wheelchair, with Neytiri's help is amazing."

Neytiri beamed at that. Her mother smiled. "I am glad Neytiri can help our brother in his healing. She is a good student and she wants our brother to heal completely."

"Yes. She is an excellent student. She's learned more and learned faster in the past week than some of my medical students learn in six months of training. She's a quick study, your daughter, and I am damn glad she's here helping us." he finished.

"And perhaps, Toktor Hansen, this bodes well for both our people." Mo'at said, looking at her daughter. "That a Tsahik of the Na'vi could help her human brother to heal, using both human healing and Na'vi knowledge to do so."

"Yes," the doctor said, mulling that for a moment, "that is an excellent thought."

"And I think we need to let Jerry rest more," Neytiri said, "Jerry, I'll bring you your evening meal over soon." Mo'at made her goodbyes and they returned to the other building, leaving Norm to stay with Jerry, whom she noticed was getting tired again.

"Let him rest." she said.

-SCENE BREAK-

Chess was such an interesting game, Neytiri thought, as she gazed over the board. It was sitting on a little table next to her brother's hospital bed. His evening meal now eaten (and thank Eywa the other Na'vi were helping her prepare and then bring these meals to him) and the plate put to the side.

He wanted to see how well she had learned chess and she was showing him. Oh yes, she was showing him, as she moved one of her pieces to another square, taking yet another of his pieces off the board. She smiled triumphantly. "Checkmate! My brother. I have defeated you."

"Yup. Looks that way." her brother said, his voice dulled by pain medication. He didn't sound too enthusiastic about losing yet another chess game.

She turned to Norm, on the other side of the bed. "You see, Normspellman, human pain medication have a good side to them. My brother's mind is dulled by them and so I can win playing this game against him!"

"Yeah, hadn't thought of it that way." Norm said, looking at Jerry, who looked for all the world like he wanted to simply melt into the bedsheets and disappear.

Neytiri was concerned. "Are you feeling better, my brother? Do you need more rest?" she said, her healing duties then coming to the fore. "Do you want to play another game?"

"No, too tired for that, these pain meds, they make my mind feel like it's trapped in molasses or something. It's not fun." he muttered.

She put her hand on his chest. "Then I will ask your toktor to get different medications for you, and I and the other Tsahiks will find better remedies for you. We'll ask Mother to get them for you. We won't let you hurt, brother. Soon, you'll be strong enough to meet with the Earth leaders, and your mind will need to be as sharp as it has ever been to help us." She put the chess pieces away and then put the chess set away.

He considered what she had just said for a moment. "Yeah, gotta get me off these meds, or else I'll just be a burden to everyone."

She looked at Normspellman, then at her brother. "Do not worry about this, brother. We will take care of this for you." she said, getting up. "Normspellman and I will go back to the other place and we will talk to the Tsahiks. You must rest now, brother. We will be back soon."

"Well, you can stay over there tonight if you want, both of you. I'm probably going to be fine. Besides, you need some quality time with Jake. I think he's getting annoyed that you're over here with me when you should be with him."

"Yeah," said Normspellman, "You are after all the Toruk Macto Macto, you know."

"'Toruk Macto Macto'? No, it was my Jake who tamed the mighty Toruk, not me." she said, noticing that both Jake and Jerry were smiling, then it hit her. Rider of the Rider of the Last Shadow.

She brushed her hand to the side. "You two. I don't know what to do with you!" she said, trying to sound angry, but not succeeding.

"Hey, what can you expect, we're Geeks, you know. It's the way we think." Normspellman said, still smiling at Jerry. "I mean, Jake got to ride the Toruk, so that means you can ride him anytime you want to, which means you're the Rider of the Rider of the Last Shadow."

"You sure you want either of us near this kid of yours? Any of your kids, for that matter? We could really, really warp these children of yours, Neytiri." her brother said, smiling.

Neytiri crossed her arms and looked at both of them. "I don't know. I'll have to talk to Jake about that." she said, laughing as she grabbed the plates and dishes for his meal. She put the datawindow back on his bed, next to him. "I'll be back later, brother." and with that, she and Norm left.

-SCENE BREAK-

She did come back, a few hours later, mostly to see how he was doing. She had decided that he was right. There didn't need to be anyone from the Na'vi here with him at all times, but it still felt good to check in on him and see how he was doing.

He was gray and shaken, when she came into his room. The datawindow was next to him, his hand on it. She was immediately concerned. Was it something he had seen on it that had scared him?

She approached his beside and as she got closer, she realized he was crying very softly.

"Are you feeling well, my brother? Do you want to me to call your toktor?"

He looked at her, then held up the datawindow. "It's your Great Mother. She's been mining the databanks in the RDA's server backbone and finding the truth. She just sent me a bunch of information, what they were planning on doing. They wanted war, Neytiri, and they were prepared to do anything to get it. It all makes sense now, the Dark Dreamer project, why they hired a sociopath like Quaritch and why he was never interested in peace, Selfridge paying lip service to diplomacy, they never really wanted the avatar program to succeed. They were planning, they wanted, another Holocaust. They wanted a full-on war, that's why they never listened to any of us. They wanted to wipe you out. I was right all along, I just didn't realize how right I was." he said, starting to sob very softly. "I thought they were evil, I never really knew just how evil they were."

She picked up the datawindow and put it on the table to the side. She turned the machine off. She had no idea what he was talking about, but clearly, he'd just seen something that had scared him deeply. This was obviously not good for his health, mental or otherwise.

"Just rest now, brother. I will be here until you sleep." she said, taking his hand.

"I just wanted to stop it, the madness, I never realized they were really this crazy, this bad. I'm sorry, Neytiri, we didn't stop it sooner." he said, looking at her through his tears.

"Rest, brother. You need rest." she said, looking at him.

The Tsahik of the Omaticaya held her brother's hand as he cried himself to sleep.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23: In Which Neytiri Sees The Truth

It was time for breakfast, both for Jerry and for the Na'vi. Neytiri and Normspellman prepared Jerry his morning meal. Jake would take it over to him when it was done. In the meantime, everyone else would enjoy a meal of something white and pasty, something Harlodvance assured them was eaten by many humans here, on the world of the humans.

"It's called tapioca pudding and it's a treat for humans. We got some of it for you. You just have to put some of this stuff we call 'milk' into it and you can then eat it with these things, called spoons." he said, holding a little object in his hands that had a bowl-shaped depression at one end, which was attached to a handle of some sort.

Well, it was something new, and why not? She had heard Jake say the phrase, "you only live once" a few times, and now she understood what that meant.

The tapioca was good, and mixed in with a bit of the sweetener the humans called 'sugar' was actually quite tasty. She enjoyed it a lot and looking around, she could see the other Na'vi also liked it. She would have to see if this tapioca could become a more regular part of their diet for as long as they were here, which she had a feeling would not be all that much longer. Jerry was getting better every day and soon, he would be well enough for the peace treaty negotiations.

"I'll bring Jerry's breakfast over to him." Jake said, smiling at her, "we're eating almost as good as he is now."

"Yes we are, this is good food." she said, being sure to thank Haroldvance for the tapioca.

Jake left to bring Jerry his breakfast. "I wonder if it would be possible to hear our Great Mother here, on this world of the Sky People?" Kanu said.

Some of the other Na'vi echoed that comment. "It would be nice to be able to be with Her here," said one, the Olo'eyktan of the Southern Plains clan. "I mean, we are here, away from home, but She is here too, controlling their machines. Perhaps there is a way to communicate with her through these machines the humans use."

Neytiri thought for a moment, "Yes, there might be a way to do that." she said.

But, there were other things to do first, and that idea was put off for a few hours. Then, it occurred to her to ask Haroldvance about the thought that had been expressed earlier.

"My brother brought a machine to my world that let Eywa communicate with him. Is there such a machine here? We would like to use it."

"I'll see what I can do." he said.

The day went on. She made Jerry his lunchtime meal and brought it over to him. He was looking better today, she noticed and said so to his doctor. "My brother is doing better today, Toktor Hansen?" she asked him.

"Yes he is, Neytiri, perhaps another day or so and he might be up to negotiating."

"We'll see about that," her brother grumbled. He ate the food she had prepared for him and even smacked his lips when it was over. "That was good food, Neytiri." he said.

"And we'll make you a fine dinner tonight, brother." she answered him with a smile. "We want you to get better and stronger." she finished, taking the plates with her.

Haroldvance came back a few hours later, with one of the people Jerry worked with here. This man had a machine with him, just like the one Jerry had brought to Pandora.

The other Na'vi were curious about it. "This machine will let us be with Eywa, even here?" Kanu asked, looking at the machine with a dubious eye.

"Jerry would know, but this man should be able to make this machine work." Neytiri said, switching back to English to address the man who had brought the machine with him.

"You can make this machine work?" she asked him.

"Yes. I know how it works and I can do that for you. I can connect it to our network and with this machine, you will be able to hear your deity, if she's now part of our network."

"Good, this is what we want." she said.

It turned out that making the machine work took a little longer to do than the man had realized. It took almost an hour. In that time, Neytiri and two of the other Tsahiks had prepared Jerry's evening meal. Norm took the meal over to Jerry.

When he came back, he was chuckling. "I think Jerry is starting to get cabin fever." he said.

"Cabin fever?" she asked.

"It just means that Jerry is getting bored and restless, it's been almost two weeks now since he went into the hospital, and after a week and a half of sitting in that bed, not really able to get around much, he's getting tired of it." Jake answered, looking at her. "Jerry just wants to be up and around."

"Well, we will soon give him that chance. Maybe even tomorrow, if he is up to it." she said.

And then, it was time to try out the machine.

As she had done on Pandora when Jerry had asked her to, Neytiri would be the first Na'vi to use this machine here. She took her queue and placed it in the little hole on the side of the machine.

She felt a tingling, a very familiar feeling she had always had before, at the Tree of Souls, at the now-destroyed Tree of Voices. It was indeed the Great Mother. The feeling suffused itself over her mind and down into her body. She felt Eywa wash over her, into her, through her. She started smiling, the other Na'vi watching her. "Yes, my brothers and sisters. I am One with Eywa now." she said.

The other Na'vi looked at her with awe. "You are hearing Her?" Kanu asked.

"I am hearing Her and I am feeling Her. She is with me and I am with Her." Neytiri said.

And she heard the Voice. "Neytiri, My child, I am here, with you now." it whispered through the depths of her soul. The Great Mother was speaking to her through this machine!

"O Great Mother, I hear you now." she replied.

"Come with Me, and I will show you the world of the Sky People. I must show you some things. Close your eyes and come with me." Ewya commanded her and she followed.

She closed her eyes, and then, it was as though she could see herself in the room, surrounded by the Na'vi, who watched her in awe. She suddenly realized that this was a view through one of Jerry's cameras, hidden in a corner of the room. The view stepped back, and she was looking outside the building, from another camera somewhere else. She could see the familiar front steps of this building they were in, and the location where she and Jake had held their brother in their arms as he lay dying on the ground in front of him. She could see the hospital building he was now recuperating in.

The view pulled back again, this time she was very high above this city, this place called Washington. She could not tell exactly how high she was, but it was clearly from another camera, this one must have been on some kind of machine. This same view pulled back even farther, and she could see that this city was simply one part of a great, vast urban conglomeration. She could see lights outlining the eastern coast of this continent, tiny moving lights showed her where the roads were, where the elevated trains were. This was the world of the Sky People.

The view pulled back again, even farther. She could now see most of the night side of this planet of the Sky People, the lights of the cities were twinkling and glistening in the darkness.

Here was the world her Jake and her brother had come from.

She could now see it, through all the machines the Great Mother now had control of. She could feel the network, alive and pulsing, the collective heartbeat of ten billion people pulsing through her mind, their thoughts, their dreams, their aspirations, all part of this network of machines. She could hear five billion phone calls, see ten billion text messages, read a couple billion emails, all of it, as it bounced around their network. This was the network her Great Mother now had control of.

Eywa was part of that network, and now, so was Neytiri, at least for this moment.

It felt like her mind had become a vast, empty cavern, through which the tiny, insignificant being her soul had become was now flitting about, watching, absorbing, always under the protective Eye of her Great Mother.

"O Great Mother, I See You!" she exclaimed in the silence of her soul and she heard the Great Mother reply to her.

"Neytiri, My child. There is something you must see. I must show you who the Sky People are so you will know from whence Jakesully and Jerryhandelman have come. There is a reason I chose Jakesully for you. Your brother did not want to tell you of this because he did not feel you were ready for this knowledge. I know you are ready, My child. I must show you these things."

Neytiri felt a sudden longing in her soul, at once to flee from this yet curious by her very nature, a desire to know. With absolute certainty, she knew it would never be the same if she followed the Great Mother down this path, but she knew she must.

She followed, and her Great Mother showed Neytiri some things.

There were places, names, she did not understand, and pictures she could not make sense of. Places like Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Rwanda, Bosnia, names like Josef Stalin, Pol Pot, Adolph Hitler, Slobodan Milosovic and many others flashed across her mind. She saw things and pictures of things she could never have imagined in her worst nightmares. The Dark Dreamer Project, her people used for experiments, and other things, things that horrified her. She peered into the darkest, deepest Stygian depths of the human heart and what she saw there terrified her. She saw her people, some of them, in the Sky People's labs, being used for experiments, tortured, then killed. She heard their howls of pain in her heart and to the deepest depths of her soul.

_O Great Mother, why are you showing me this!_ she wailed to the very depths of her soul.

_Because you must know who the Sky People are, the fullness of their history, it is where they have come from, My child!_

_No, no, no!_ Neytiri howled. _They are monsters, they are killers, the Sky People, but my Jake is not! They are evil, but he is my mate! _she cried out in horror. _This is not who he is!_

_ But this is where he came from, My child. This is his heritage. You must understand this because to know where you are going, you must know from where you came. This is where Jakesully came from, this is what Jerryhandelman tried to hide from you. This is why I want you to make peace with them so they can never again allow the dark side of their nature to control them. You must show them the better way. You must show them My way. You must lead them away from this, their heritage of hate, murder, deception, and depravity. You must do this, My child, so that they will never again menace you or any of My children again! They can rise above this! With your guidance, they will rise above this! They are better than this!_

Neytiri tried to run from this horror, but the realization was now settling into the depths of her soul that she could never get away from this. She felt the Great Mother pulling away from her, withdrawing from her. She tried to reach out, to call out for the Great Mother, but to no avail.

She felt herself returning to her own body, in that room in the Sky People building, her soul descending back down into herself like a Woodsprite falling upon the ground.

She opened her eyes and looked around. Jake was staring at her. "Is everything all right with you, Neytiri?" he asked her. The others were gathered around her and the machine.

She removed her queue from the machine. "Turn that off!" she said angrily, gesturing to the machine as she got up from sitting in front of it.

"Is everything fine?" Jake said. "You look like you've just seen a ghost. Are you crying?" he asked her, looking at her intently.

She looked at her mate with new eyes. "No, everything is not fine. I must speak to Jerry. Alone." she said with finality. "No one uses that machine again!" she said. The others backed away from it as though it were poisonous.

She walked out of the room in a haze of anger and disgust, mixed with revulsion and horror at what she had just seen. The tears started flowing as soon as she got outside. Her brother had some explaining to do and he'd better have some good answers, she decided with absolute finality.

-SCENE BREAK-

Jerry was sitting up in his bed when she came in.

He noticed her tears as soon as she walked into the room.

"Neytiri, is everything all right?" he asked her, in the same tone of voice as her mate had just asked her in the other building.

"No, my brother. Everything is not 'all right' and it never will be 'all right' ever again. Why didn't you tell me?" she said, the tears flowing freely again. "Why didn't you tell me the truth?" she demanded of him.

He shrank back in his bed a little bit. "About what?" he said.

"Our Great Mother showed me the things you didn't want me to know of. Places like Auschwitz, Bosnia, Rwanda, Armenia, Nigeria. People like Aldoph Hitler, Pol Pot, Josef Stalin. Michael Obuko. She showed me the experiments, the 'Dark Dreamer' insanity. She showed me the truth, brother. You are murderers, all of you! Why didn't you tell me?" she said, crying at this betrayal.

He looked at her for a long moment. "I didn't tell you because I couldn't tell you!" he said. "You couldn't have understood it even if I told you the truth. I was just trying to protect you!" he said, glaring at her. "Besides, I'm the one who should be angry here. Eywa used me to get what she wanted, that bitch!"

She rapped him hard against his head with her hand. "Do not refer to our Great Mother that way ever again, brother! She needed you to help protect us, but you didn't protect me. The Great Mother has showed me who you are, your race. Jerry, how can we trust you, ever?" she asked, pleadingly, looking into his eyes for some sign of repentance.

"You can trust me, Neytiri. I risked my life for you, remember." he muttered.

"Yes, my brother, I know you did, but your race, your people, the Sky People, how can we ever trust them now that we know what you are capable of doing?" she practically yelled at him.

"Because if Jake Sully is capable of fighting that, of rising above that, if Trudy Chacon can turn against her own people and fight for you, if Norm Spellman can stand up against the human race for you, then any of us can, including me, your physics geek brother-in-law." he said

"But you are murderers, you are killers, how do we know you will never do that to us?" she demanded to know. "You are a race of killers!" she yelled at him.

"Yes, we are killers, but we are also dreamers. We are poets. We are artists. We are singers. We are leaders. We are lovers, we are explorers, we are students, and we are teachers. We are human beings. It is who we are. I didn't want you to know about the darker side of our nature because I didn't want you to hate me or Jake. That part of us is part of me, part of Jake, but we overcame it and if we can, anyone of us, any human can, and if any human can, then all humans can. If your Jake can See, if I can See, if Norm can See, then any of us can See, and if any of us can See, all of us can See." he said.

"I can't hate you, my brother, I can't hate Jake, or Normspellman, but your race, your people. I hate them now. I wish to get away from this world, this place and never come back here. Your people are murderers." she said.

"Yes. That is the truth. We are murderers, but we are also everything else, and if you hate us, then you must hate me. You have to hate Jake. You have to hate Norm." He pointed to her belly. "And, you must hate that child you are carrying for that child carries some of the blood of the Sky People. It is part of your child's heritage. It is part of who your child is. You can't have that much hatred in your heart, because if you do, then there can never be peace between our worlds. Neytiri, it is part of who we are as a race and we can't deny it, we can only overcome it. And what, the Na'vi are the embodiment of perfection? You've never killed in anger before, you've never had wars before? I'm just an ignorant Sky Person who can't See, right? Just because some of us can't See doesn't mean all of us can't! You can't hate all of us just because some of us are assholes!"

His words spoke the truth. She held her hands over her belly. He was right. This child, her child, Jake's child, was part human, after all. She could never hate this child for Jake's heritage as a human being.

"Yes, you are right, brother, I have had such dark feelings against your race, but that was because of what you did to us. Now I see your history. I see where you come from. But how can we trust you, ever?" she asked again.

"You can trust us because you know me, you know Jake. We will never allow the human race to hurt you. We will not allow this because we know our race is better than that."

"Better? How?" she persisted. "If you were so 'better than that' then why didn't you speak out during the Dark Dreamer project, the experiments upon my people?"

He swallowed hard. "Because I found out about that after the fact. I wanted to speak out, but Grace told me it would be better to keep quiet, for the moment. I didn't speak out and I am sorry. I wish I could have spoken out sooner, but I could not, they would have known my true feelings about your people and your world, so I kept silent. And because of that, the blood of your people is on my hands, Neytiri. I saw the madness coming to your world and I knew I had to stop it, somehow. I didn't ever want to get involved, to stick my neck out like this, but I had to in order to stop this madness, whatever the cost, even if it was my own life. I had to stop this madness, this insanity before it engulfed my world and destroyed yours."

She looked at him for a long moment, this man, this Sky Person, this human who had risked everything, his livelihood, his position, and finally his life, for her, for Jake. He had risked it all not because it was for him, but because it was for her, for the People, and because it was the right thing to do. She now Saw him, truly Saw him for what he was.

He was a human being, a human being who had risen above his reluctance to take a stand and had risked everything to defend her and her people from his own people's madness.

He spoke the truth.

"Yes, my brother, you stopped them, for now. But what of the future?"

He looked at her. "Neytiri, my great-great-great-great-grandfather was one of the soldiers who liberated Buchenwald death camp. Some of my relatives in Germany died in the camps. I know our history. I know what we were capable of doing to you and your world if the dark side of our nature was ever allowed to come near your world. I had to stop them and I did. I couldn't tell the truth about what they were doing because no one would have believed me. I had to lie to them, to myself, to everyone else until the time was right to stand up. And I stood up to them. I will never rest until their crimes are shown to all to see. This I promise you."

She leaned toward him. "There can be no more lies, my brother. There can only be truth from now on. You owe me this. You must speak out about what these people did to us and why you stopped them. You owe me this, brother. No more lying." she said.

He took her hand and gripped it. "I promise you, I will never shut up about what they did. The whole world will know the truth of their crimes. There will be no more lies, no more deceptions, no more of that. I am tired of all of it and I promise you, I will speak the truth from now on."

Grief clutched at her soul. She regarded this man before her, emotions clashing through her mind. Anger, for not telling her the truth, revulsion at Seeing his race for the first time, disgust at what his race had done to her people, and finally, love, for this man and what he had done to save her people from the worst of his race.

"I See you." she said, through her tears.

She held his hand for a long moment, the tears returning to her eyes. These were tears of gratitude, not anger, not fear. This man, her brother, had risked everything to give her and Jake and her people a future. She must not ruin that chance with hatred, for him or his race.

"I believe you, brother. The Great Mother wants us to show you and your people a better way. Even though there is a part of me that wants nothing to do with this world or your people ever again, I know the Great Mother speaks wisdom. Now that you have helped us, we will help you. This I promise to you, my brother." she said to this man, who was truly her brother in every sense of the word, except biology.

They held each other's hand for several long moments, then she let go of him. He needed his rest, after all and tomorrow would be a busy day. He was ready for the meeting, she was sure of this.

"I must return to the other place, my Jake and the others need to know what I have seen. They will hear the truth from me. And soon, when the time comes to negotiate, the truth will be revealed for all to see and understand."

He nodded. "This is a good thing, Neytiri." he said.

She got up, then paused for a moment. "By the way, brother. Catwoman was no hero of the Sky People. Our Great Mother showed me. Just another one of your lies."

He smiled at her, and despite herself, she smiled back at him through her tears.

"Yes, you are right, sorry about that. I just didn't know how to tell you the truth about all that."

She looked at him. "But you can still call me Catwoman, if you want, brother. It is a good name. I kind of like it, actually."

"Then that I will do, Neytiri of the Omaticaya clan, the Catwoman of Pandora." he said with a laugh. And with that she adjourned to the other building. Tomorrow would be a long day.

-SCENE BREAK-

The Na'vi and Normspellman were gathered around the machine again, this time the mood was much more somber.

"And you are sure?" Kanu said, "It is time for the negotiations?"

"Yes." Neytiri said, her emotions still raw. "Jerry will be able to be with us when we talk to the humans, starting tomorrow. We will have to tell Haroldvance and he will tell his Olo'eyktan, the President. And then, we will sit down and talk to the leaders of this world, and we will talk of peace."

Kanu pointed to the machine. "I don't think I want to become One with the Great Mother that way." he said. "I think I will wait until we get home."

"Yes. This is a good thing." Neytiri said. She turned to Jake, and Norm. "This machine, our Great Mother used it to show me the truth about your race. What you have done to each other. She did that so I would understand you. I don't understand you, not completely yet, but I understand what the Great Mother wants. She wants us to make peace."

Jake mulled over that. "Well, now you see what I was walking away from when I gave up my human life." he said, smiling a little as he did. "It wasn't a hard decision to make, really." His expression turned very bleak for a moment. "I know our history, that's why I fought them. They had to be stopped. I started that, and Jerry finished it."

She smiled back at him, grateful again to the Great Mother for bringing him into her life.

"You may have been borne of the Sky People, but to me, to all of us, you are Na'vi now." she said, holding his hands. The others gathered around them, forming a circle. "Toruk Macto, we will follow you, for as long as it takes, so that there will be peace between us and the race of your birth." Kanu said, putting his hand on Jake's shoulder.

"Good. I'm going to need all the help I can get, to get through this." he sighed. He pointed to his body. "I am a thief. I stole this body from the people who made it, the RDA. I am sure they want it back. That is why they placed a price on my head for what I did." he finished, looking into Neytiri's soul with those eyes that had captured her heart.

She growled. "They will not take you back from us, from me." she said, putting her hands on his shoulders. "Not so long as I have life in me, my Jake!" The others voiced their agreement to this. "The humans will not get you back, Toruk Macto!" said one of the Olo'eyktans.

Normspellman stepped forward. "Neytiri, I am truly sorry that you had to learn the truth about us in this way. I wish we could have told you earlier. I wish Jerry had not hid the truth from you, but he felt he was protecting you. I am sorry you had to go through that experience to see our history, our past. I am sorry for what our race did to you and your people." he finished, looking at her.

"Normspellman, it is not necessary to apologize for who you are. It is part of you, your race, and I would not have it any other way. There is good in you, and bad, and we will bring the good in your race out. This way, all of us will triumph." Neytiri said, looking at Normspellman, hoping he would undestand her.

"Thank you." he said, simply.

And with that, it was time to get some rest.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Of Matrimony and Meetings

They all arose early the next day. Today would be a busy and good day, but there were still things to be done. They informed Haroldvance that they were ready to meet with the President and the other leaders. He promised them he would expedite matters for that meeting and would meet them over at Jerry's room. And speaking of Jerry, he needed his morning meal, and after they were all done eating, Neytiri prepared it herself (with a little bit of help from Normspellman) and got herself ready to take it over.

"I'll come with you." Normspellman said. "And Jake might as well come with us too."

Neytiri pondered that for a moment. Why not? It was not as though the Na'vi here needed Normspellman or Jake or her with them at every moment, and today was an important day anyway for today, they would be meeting with the leaders of Earth.

"Yes. Let's do that. The three of us can bring him his meal and we'll all see how he is doing." Neytiri said, and, after a moment's reflection, she decided to wear the clothing Jerry had given her when they first got here. These were the dreamwalker's clothes that Graceaugustine had worn on Pandora and it seemed fitting to her that she should honor her faithful teacher and second mother in this way. "Grace would want me to wear these today, I am sure." she told Jake. He agreed. He was wearing the regalia of a Olo'eyktan. Her heart was proud for him, the leader of her people, Toruk Macto, her mate, Jake Sully.

So, they took the meal over to Jerry. Neytiri was careful to hold the tray as level as possible, noting that the heavy boots she was wearing were very useful in keeping her feet warm and preventing her from sliding on the frozen water that covered the sidewalk. She was glad the hospital building was only a short distance away because she could feel the cold chill in the air, even through the clothing she was wearing, now realizing that the shorts she had on were not much of a protection against the chill.

They got to Jerry's room and saw him there with Haroldvance and Jerry's doctor.

"Jake, Norm, Neytiri!" Jerry said, sitting up in his bed. "You're all here. Good." Neytiri thought this odd, but gave it little thought. Yes, they were all here, this day was an important one.

They gave him his breakfast and he ate it quickly, as though he was trying to rush through it.

"Take your time, brother." Neytiri said, putting her hand on his shoulder. "You don't want to rush yourself. You need your strength today."

"Yes, that is true, but there's something else I need to do before we meet with the leaders, so I want to get breakfast out of the way first."

"Something else?" Neytiri said, looking at Jake. He was as confused as she was.

"Yes." Jerry said, looking at Norm. They were both smiling. Neytiri scowled. Were they about to pull one of their practical jokes on her, on this day of all days?

Jerry saw her pained expression. "Jake, Neytiri, me and Norm have a surprise for you." he said and at that moment, two men entered the room. She did not know who they were, but something told her they were good and they intended her no harm.

"Jake, Neytiri, I would like you to meet William Sheldon, the Clerk of Court for Arlington County, and licensed Notary Public, whose job it is to ensure all legal documents and contracts entered into in this county are properly recorded and authorized, and the Reverend Charles Young, who is the chaplain at this hospital, an ordained Catholic priest who is authorized to perform marriage ceremonies by the Commonwealth of Virginia."

"The county clerk and a minister? Wait a minute … " Jake said, looking at Jerry and Norm very suspiciously. Then he started smiling too. "Ah, I get it." he said after a moment.

Jerry looked at Neytiri. "Neytiri, you said you wanted to be 'married in the Sky People way' a few days back. Well, your wish is my command, and with Norm's help, we can do that for you. Do you want to get married to Jake right here, right now, in the way the Sky People are married?"

Her heart melted a little bit as she looked at him, then at her mate. "Yes, my brother. You can do this? For us?"

"Sure enough, but it is actually these two men who will do the deed for you and it will be a legal marriage, correct?" he said, looking at the two men.

"Yes." said Williamsheldon, "your money transfer cleared this morning, so the fee on the marriage certificate is good to go, all we have to do is have the couple fill it out and I'll file it with the court. Then as soon as they go through the ceremony, it is a done deal."

Jerry looked at Neytiri. "So, you and Jake have to fill out a marriage license with Mr. Sheldon here and then we'll have Father Young perform the ceremony and then, you'll be married in the way of the Sky People." He then looked at Haroldvance. "I know the President is waiting for us, but if you could indulge us for just a few minutes, this won't take long."

"Under the circumstances, I don't think the President would mind waiting for a few minutes longer." Haroldvance said in a resigned tone of voice. "Why not?"

Williamsheldon stepped forward. "Alright, since your brother-in-law has already paid the fee for the license, all you need to do is put your names here and here," he said, indicated two spaces on the computer window he held before them, "that is, once you decide what your name will be here."

"Name? My name is Neytiri." she said, confused.

Her brother looked at her. "No, what he means is what will be your full name on the form. It is customary, but not required, that when a woman marries a man, she takes his last name. We can't call you "Neytiri of the Omaticaya, Daughter of Mo'at" on the form, so if you take Jake's name, then you will be known as Neytiri Sully among the Sky People, or Mrs. Jake Sully, if you want to be really formal, or just Mrs. Sully if you want to be less formal. Do you want to take Jake's name?"

She looked at her mate. "Yes. I want to do this." Jake smiled at her and her heart started melting again at that smile that she had fallen in love with.

Williamsheldon typed some words on the datawindow and then put it before them. "Then you and your husband need to sign here and here with this stylus and I will print you a hardcopy of the marriage license. This electronic version is the one I will file with the court." he said.

Jake took the stylus first and signed the form where indicated. He gave the stylus to her.

It had been so long since she had held a pen in her hand and had written words on paper. The lessons came back to her, the memories of those lessons at Grace's school washing over her mind like a tide of nostalgia. She did not know how to spell her own name until Jerry wrote it out for her. She looked at Jake's name on the form and put her name next to it in careful, scripted letters on the computer screen with the stylus.:

Neytiri Sully

Seeing her new name on the screen brought tears to her eyes. Love and pride for Jake clutched at her throat, thicker than grief. Neytiri Sully. That would be her name among the Sky People now.

"And now we are married as in the Sky People way?" she asked her brother.

"No, that's just the paperwork part of it. That's just the marriage license." Williamsheldon said. Charlesyoung then came over and signed his name with the stylus. Williamsheldon then did something with his datawindow and a few moments later, a hospital worker came in with three pieces of paper.

"Ah yes, this one is for you, this other one is for my records, and this last one is for Father Young for his records." Williamsheldon said, "And with that, I am done." He nodded to Jerry, "A pleasure doing business with you." he said, preparing to leave.

"It's already filed?" Jake asked him.

"Yes. Electronically, as soon as you and your wife filled it out, I sent it back to our central computer at the county clerk's office and now all you got to do is get married and then it will be official." he said, leaving the room.

"Then we had better get this thing going." Jake said.

Charlesyoung stepped forward. "If the two of you will come here, I will perform the ceremony."

Jake stepped up to the minister and looked at Neytiri.

Jerry's doctor then stepped forward. "Neytiri, it is customary among us that the bride's father brings his daughter forward and presents her to the groom, that would be Jake. Since your father is dead and I am about his age, I will be honored to stand in for him." He extended his hand to her and she took it, smiling at him. They stepped up to the shaman, the minister, Charlesyoung.

"You are the Tsahik of the American Clan?" Neytiri asked him.

"Well no, I guess you could say that I am one of many. We don't have one spiritual leader, but I am authorized to perform marriage ceremonies, and that is what counts."

"Good." Jake said, " because I want this to be nice and legal."

"It will be." Charlesyoung said, nodding to Jerry. "Your brother paid the fee for the marriage license and my fee for this ceremony, so as far as I and the Commonwealth are concerned, it's legal all the way. You just have to go through with it and it's a done deal."

He indicated a spot in front of him. "Stand here." he said. They did.

"We are gathered here today to witness the bond of holy matrimony between Jacob Michael Sully and Neytiri Sully." he intoned carefully. He looked at Jake first. "Jacob Michael Sully, do you take this woman Neytiri to be your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, through sickness and health, through good times and bad, until death do you part, so help you God?"

Jake started crying a little, then composed himself. "I do." he said, looking at Charlesyoung, then at Neytiri, his voice thick with feeling.

Charlesyoung then looked at Neytiri. "And Neytiri, do you take this man, Jacob, to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, through sickness and in health, through good times and bad, until death do you part?" he asked her.

"You're supposed to say, 'I do'" her brother gently suggested.

She looked at Charlesyoung, then at Jake. "I do."

He looked at Jake. "Turn and face your wife." then to Neytiri, "Turn and face your husband." then he looked around. "Does anyone have the rings?"

Normspellman stepped forward. "Right here." he presented them to the minister.

"What are these?" Neytiri asked.

"They are an outward sign of your marriage to Jacob." Charlesyoung said.

"Jake, remember that 'errand' Norm was running a few days back?" Jerry asked.

"Sure." Jake said, eying the rings suspiciously. "These have something to do with that?"

"Yep. They're made of pure Unobtainium. I had Norm get them custom-ordered from a local jeweler. We kind of had to guess at the sizes, but I think we guessed right."

Her mate smiled. "You devious sonofabitch, you! Good one."

"Ahem." said Charlesyoung. "Oh, yeah." Jake said.

Charlesyoung presented one of the rings to Jake. "Take this ring and put it on her finger and repeat after me." Jake took her hand and looked her in the eye as he repeated the words Charlesyoung said to him. "With this ring, I, Jacob, take you, Neytiri, to be my lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, through sickness and in health, for better or for worse, through good times and through bad, I will love you and honor you all the days of my life until death do us part, so help me God." he finished, sliding the ring on her finger. It fit perfectly around her finger.

He then turned to Neytiri and gave her the other ring. Almost in a trance, she put the ring on Jake's finger and repeated the words Charlesyoung said to her. "With this ring, I, Neytiri, take you, Jacob, to be my lawfully wedded husband, through sickness and in health, for better or for worse, through good times and bad, I will love you and honor you all the days of my life, until death do us part, so help me God." she finished, tears coming to her eyes.

Charlesyoung then looked around the room for a moment. "Is there anyone here who can give good reason why these two should not be united in holy matrimony? If not, then let him speak now or forever hold his peace."

Neytiri was confused. She looked at her brother. "Just a formality," he said, "pay it no heed."

"Hearing no objection, by the power vested in me by Almighty God and the Commonwealth of Virginia, I, Reverend Charles Young, do hereby proclaim before all assembled here that you, Jacob Sully, and you, Netyiri Sully are now joined in holy matrimony before Almighty God. I now pronounce you husband and wife. What God has joined, men must not divide. Gentlemen, I present Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Sully." he said waving around the room. "You may kiss the bride."

And with that, Jake grabbed her and placed a deep, passionate kiss upon her lips.

They parted, and everyone in the room clapped.

"And that is that. You're now married." Jerry said.

"And if we had time, I am supposed to take Jake out and get him shitfaced drunk as his best man," Normspellman said. "But since we don't, we'll have to settle for this." he said, giving Neytiri a familiar box. It was the chess set Jerry had shown her when they first got here.

"It's from both of us," Jerry said. "We didn't have time to wrap it, but it's customary for the friends and family of the married couple to give them presents. I thought you'd like to have that."

For once, Neytiri was speechless. "Thank you, brother." was all she could say.

"You're welcome." Jerry said, "And now, you are mated to Jake in the way of the Sky People as well as the Na'vi way."

"And with that, we do need to get going." Haroldvance said.

"Yes." Jake said. "Let's get going."

They helped Jerry into his wheelchair. Neytiri put the chess set to the side. They would be able to get it later. Jerry's doctor looked at Neytiri sternly. "I want you to keep an eye on him, Neytiri. If he starts fading away, getting tired, I want you to bring him right back here. You hear me?"

"Yes, Toktor Hansen. I will take care of my brother." she said. "I will not let him push himself too hard, not for us, not if it hurts him."

"Good." the doctor said. He looked at Jerry. "Are you sure you're up to this?" he said.

"As much as I'll ever be." Jerry said.

And with that, they left, Neytiri pushing her brother's wheelchair just as she had done with Jake before he had given up his human body. Somehow, it seemed appropriate.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25: A Meeting of the Minds

They would be going to the meeting in a large vehicle. It was large enough to carry all the Na'vi there. Haroldvance told them it was a vehicle used to move human soldiers from one place to another. They would all sit in the back of this vehicle.

"The meeting site is a few kilometers from here." he said, pointing off in a particular direction. "It will only take about ten or fifteen minutes to get there, if that."

Norm would stay behind and ensure that their room in Jerry's lab would be undisturbed. "You won't need me for the negotiating. I can stay right here and keep everything under wraps." he told Jake and Neytiri. He looked at Jerry, wrapped up in a blanket, in his chair. "Dude, best of luck."

"We'll get this thing wrapped up soon enough." her brother said, keeping his strength up.

The Na'vi all climbed into the back of the vehicle, dressed in their formal regalia they had all brought for this occasion, and then, it was a matter of getting Jerry into the back. She looked at Jake and he at her. At once, they both picked up Jerry's chair and lifted it and him into the back of the vehicle, sidestepping the ramp. This was a lot quicker, Neytiri thought.

"He ain't heavy, he's my brother." Jerry sang, under his breath. For some reason, that made Jake start smiling, and Neytiri started laughing. Anything that made her husband happy made her feel good.

They secured Jerry and the vehicle began moving. As they drove through the streets, she noticed there were soldiers posted alongside the route they were traveling, some on the sidewalks, others on the rooftops, and still more at intersections. She saw no one else.

"That's for security. We've basically shut this city down so we can get you to the meeting site." Haroldvance told her. "Does that include the airspace?" Jake pointed upward.

"Yup." Haroldvance said. "In fact, ever since we became aware of your presence, the airspace around here has been completely restricted. I assure, no one, especially those who hate you or your brother-in-law, could have flown a plane into either Dr. Handelman's lab or the hospital he is in. Don't worry about that. For that matter, no one could have gotten within two kilometers of either building unless they had a legitimate reason to be there. We've kept you under guard and very secure, that I can promise you with absolute certainty."

Her husband considered that for a moment. "Thank you." he said finally.

Neyitiri noticed that Jerry had fallen asleep. She smiled at Jake. "He must still be tired. I hope he'll be able to last through today, at least."

"He'll be fine." her husband said, smiling back at her. "He'll get a little more rest, that's all."

The vehicle was slowing down. They must be nearing the meeting site.

"Almost there." Haroldvance said.

-SCENE BREAK-

The meeting was to be held in a big room, inside a large building. The Na'vi delegation filed in to the room, Neytiri pushing Jerry's chair. They went to one side of this big room and she noticed there were a number of humans on the other side of the room. They were on one side of an enormous, long table, and the Na'vi delegation, with her, Jake, and Jerry in front, were on the other, the rest of the Na'vi were all sitting behind them, on large benches.

"That's President Abernathy," her brother said, in slow, careful Na'vi, pointing to a dark-skinned woman. Neytiri recognized her from the photographs Jerry had shown them. "And the others there, they're her cabinet." She looked at him, questioning. "Her advisers, I mean." He pointed to the other humans, some of whom she recognized from the pictures he'd shown them.

"That's President Suvarov and Secretary Perreault, along with the leaders of the European Union and several others." His expression darkened when he saw another man, sitting toward the end of the group of humans. "What the hell is he doing here?" her brother said, switching back to English.

"Who is he?" Neytiri wanted to know.

"He's Charles Bundy, the head of the RDA. He's the one who's responsible for all this mess. He's the one who hired Selfridge, Quaritch, and the others. He's the one ultimately responsible for what they did on Pandora, to you and the Omaticaya, and all the other Na'vi they killed." Jerry scowled, looking at this man. "I want to know why he's here?"

Neytiri's expression went dark, just like her brother's. Her tail twitched in silent fury. This man was responsible for killing her father, among many things. She wanted him to pay for that. But first, it was time to negotiate. It was time to talk.

-SCENE BREAK-

After the introductions were made and everyone knew everyone else's names, titles, clan identification (in the case of the Na'vi) and everything else, a silence stretched across the room. It grew, uncomfortable and awkward. Everyone was waiting for someone to 'break the ice' as her brother often said. Finally, he spoke.

"Well, I supposed everyone is wondering why I called this meeting today." her brother began.

The American leader threw down the writing stick she'd been holding. "Dr. Handelman! Would you stop joking for a moment and get serious. This is a very, very serious matter!" she snapped at him. Neytiri looked at her husband. Jake was smiling.

The American leader picked up her writing implement and pointed it at Jake. "Mr. Sully, I would appreciate it if you would not take a cue from your brother-in-law and start getting serious."

"Serious, I can do that." Jake said, looking at his wife for a moment and seeing her smile back at him. "But you got to admit, that was a fun little zing my brother just came up with."

"Yes. And it has no place here. Before we can start talking, we have to get some preliminaries out of the way first. For starters, we have to decide what to do with your brother-in-law. Dr. Handelman, do you have any idea how much trouble you are in right now?"

Her brother looked at the American president for a long moment. "I'm guessing 'a metric buttload' would just about cover it." he finally said.

The president pointed her writing stick at him. "You sir, don't seem to be taking this with the gravity it deserves. Do you know how many laws you've broken?"

"I'm sure it's in the dozens by now, but I really don't care right now. What, you're going to throw me in jail?"

"The thought has crossed my mind, Dr. Handelman!" the president said.

"I guess that means the Congressional Medal of Honor is out of the question?" her brother muttered. Despite herself, Neytiri couldn't help but smile, sensing that Jake was smiling too.

The president glared at him for a long moment. "No, you're not getting any medals, at least not from me or anyone else here. You broke the law, mister, and you have a lot to answer for."

"Well, I figured I'd probably not be getting any medals or ticker-tape parades, but is this any way to show gratitude? I mean, really. Threatening me with jail? I might as well be in junior high."

The president put down her writing stick. "Gratitude? For what? For handing our global computer network to a foreign entity, for causing an upheaval to our global civilization and economy, an upheaval we're just now beginning to dig ourselves out from? I am afraid I have little reason to be grateful to you, Dr. Handelman. You've left us in a fine mess."

"Well, you know, there is that little business of me interceding and stopping a full-on war, both here against ourselves and us against the Na'vi. You guys could be a little grateful for that, you know."

"There are those who would call you a traitor for what you did, Dr. Handelman. And some of those people are in very high places. I wouldn't push your luck." the president said.

"Traitor? Maybe. But I had my reasons." Her brother said.

"Like what? Some higher purpose? The ends justify the means?" the president said.

Her brother raised himself up in his seat. "Everything I did I did to protect them!" he waved behind him, indicating Neytiri and the Na'vi. "And if I had it to do all over again, I would do all of it over again, with no regrets. I saw a threat to them and I dealt with it. If you don't like that, you can all kiss my sorry ass. I have nothing to apologize for and I am not giving you the satisfaction of begging for your forgiveness. You can all kiss off!" he finished, almost yelling at the last part. Neytiri motioned for him to be quiet. She was afraid that he might overextend himself.

There was silence from the other side of the room for several long moments.

"Even though tens of thousands of your fellow citizens died in the immediate aftermath of what you did, you still have no regrets for that?" The president looked at him as she said that.

"That I do regret, but I never wanted that to happen. I just wanted to stop the insanity. I saw a way to to just that and I did it, and I pulled it off right under your noses. Yeah, that's right, me the uber-geek everyone just thought was a harmless, absent-minded professor, did what no one else has ever done: I brought the RDA down before they took the rest of us down with them." her brother finished, crossing his arms.

At that, the Olo'eyktan of the RDA spoke up. He had been eying her brother during all this, watching, his anger boiling up. "You goddamn traitor! If it was up to me, you'd be dead already!" he yelled.

Jerry looked at him, then at Jake. "Jake, get me that tablet, and that pen." Jake handed him the items and he wrote something on the page in front of him.

He then held it up, pointing at the Olo'eyktan of the RDA. "Any time he says anything from now on, I'll just hold up this piece of paper. That'll make it simpler and easier for everyone, especially me, because I won't be wasting breath on that piece of shit." he said, putting the piece of paper down.

The president looked at him, then the other humans around her. "Very funny, professor." in a tone of voice indicating she was anything but amused. Jake picked up the paper. It had one word, printed out in large, block letters:

BULLSHIT

Jerry pointed at the RDA Olo'eyktan. "I want to know what that piece of shit over there is doing here and I want to know why he's not in jail right now for the crimes the RDA has committed against my sister-in-law and her people." he said loudly.

"And I want to know why you haven't arrested him yet for treason, among other things!" the RDA Olo'eyktan yelled, pointing at Jerry. "He's a goddamn traitor. You should arrest him right now!"

"There will be no arrests, at least not today." the president said. "Both of you will calm down right now." She pointed to Jerry, looking at the RDA Olo'eyktan, "He's not in jail because we haven't decided to charge him with anything, yet." She pointed to the RDA Olo'eyktan. "The only reason you're not in jail right now is because I don't know if the men who put him," she pointed to Jerry, "in that wheelchair were working directly for you. If and when I find out they were, you are going down, mister. I will see to that myself. You were invited to this meeting as a courtesy. Do not abuse the privilege."

"Some 'invitation' that was. I was told to be here. So here I am." the RDA Olo'eyktan said, glaring at Jerry. "I want him to pay for what he did!" he muttered.

"That may yet happen, but for now, you will keep your damn mouth shut and sit there like a good little boy." the president snapped. "Dr. Handelman very nearly died when those 'bounty hunters' showed up outside his lab and it's only by the grace of good fortune that he's still with us today. If you were responsible for that, you are dead meat, mister. Shut your damn mouth and listen, for once."

The RDA Olo'eyktan was silent after that, still glaring at Jerry. He looked like he wanted to step across the room and kill Jerry with his bare hands. Neytiri took her husband's hand and they glared back at him, her tail twitching in anticipation. _Go ahead, try it and you're dead. I'll rip your heart out and stuff it down your mouth if you lay one finger on my brother. _Neytiri thought, feeling her husband's thoughts at one with hers.

The room was silent for a long moment.

The president looked at Jerry. "We still haven't decided what we're going to do with you, Jerry."

He looked back at her. "Coretta. I'm sorry. I never wanted any of this to happen. I just wanted to stop the madness from destroying all of us. I saw a way to do it and I did it." he said with finality. "But if you try and punish me for what I did, you had better consider this. If I am harmed or punished in any way, shape, or form for what I did, my brother will be very, very angry with you. If he gets angry, my sister-in-law will get angry too. If she gets angry with you, the whole Omaticaya clan will get angry with you, and that means the Na'vi will get angry with you, and if the Na'vi are angry with you, then our Great Mother will be very, very angry with you. And she's sitting on top of your global network, her finger on every bomb, every missile, every gun, just waiting to see what you do."

"Is that a threat, Dr. Handelman?" the president glared at him.

"No, just a statement of fact." Jerry said. "For some reason, these two," he said, pointing at Jake and Neytiri, "seem to have taken quite a shine to me. What either of them could ever See in a physics geek like me, I have no idea, but they consider me to be part of their family, and the Na'vi are very, very protective toward their family members and members of their clan, just in case you were not aware of that."

Neytiri put both her hands on her brother's shoulders and Jake put his hand on top of hers. "Very protective." she said, looking at the president.

Jake stood up, the leader that he was asserting itself. "Like my brother said. We consider him to be part of our family and clan. If you punish my brother for what he did to help me and my wife and the Na'vi, then I will be very, very angry with you. If I'm angry, my wife will be angry, and pretty soon, all the Na'vi will be angry, and if the Na'vi are angry, so too will our Great Mother. She will not sit idly and let you hurt him." Jake said, sitting down.

Tahni stood up and spoke. "Jerryhandelman is hero to all Na'vi!" she said loudly, and there were murmurs of agreement from the other Na'vi present.

"Well, that settles that." the president sighed, "it was worth a shot to at least ask you." she removed a piece of paper from a folder one of her aides was holding. She put her name on it and gave it to that aide, who took it across the room and presented it to Jerry.

"There's your 'Get Out Of Jail Free' card. A presidential pardon, signed, sealed, and delivered. Much as it goes against everything I believe in, it's the simplest way to get us out of this mess you have put us in. But get this straight. You cross the line, ever again, even once, even for so much as jaywalking and you're going down, Jerry. I don't care who you think you are. Break the law again, and you're history." she finished.

"Does this mean I still have to pay my income tax?" Jerry asked, very slyly.

The president put her pen down. "Yes, Dr. Handelman. You still have to pay your income tax!"

"My brother will not violate any more of your laws." Neytiri said, looking at the president. "If he does, he will answer to me and my husband first. I assure you, Madame President. My brother will not give you reason to punish him."

"That's very nice of you, but your brother-in-law did violate our national security when your deity used the knowledge he gave her to take control of our network. He gave her classified information, and that alone is a violation of our laws just by itself. We can't just simply ignore that."

"So what, you're going to arrest Eywa for using the knowledge I gave her?" Jerry said, with a snort. "That's a very interesting trick, the NSA trying to arrest a planetary neural network."

The president glared at him for a moment. "Very funny professor. Very funny." she said. "You damn well know that if Ewya knows our secrets, she can tell them to anyone she might want to at any time and we can't stop her. Very funny."

"My brother told us none of your secrets." Neytiri spoke. "He shared those secrets only with our Great Mother and She has not chosen to share them with us. Your secrets are safe."

The president looked at her, then at Jerry. "Fine. Whatever. But don't make me regret giving you that pardon, Dr. Handelman. Because if I have to regret it, then I will have no choice but to throw the book at you, I don't care who you know or who you think you are." 

The room was silent again, for a few long moments.

"So that's it? You're just going to let him walk away from this just like that?" the American president's war leader said. "After what he did?"

She looked at Jerry. "No, we're going to get our civilization back, that's what we're going to do and if you have any sense, General Yeager, you will keep your mouth shut, especially if you want to keep your job. I'm just doing what I have to do in order to get our world and our civilization back. If that means giving Dr. Handelman a pardon, then so be it."

"That's all good and fine, Coretta, but what about the people who helped me? Are you going after them for what they did to help me?" he asked her, looking at the humans around the president, "Because if you do, that will make me very angry, you know."

"And getting you angry wouldn't be a wise thing to do, we get that, Jerry." the president sighed. She looked at the other Earth leaders. "We won't prosecute them for what they did, but no pardons, not from me, or anyone else here. We'll just look the other way."

"Good." Jerry said. "I'm happy with that."

The leader of the Russian Clan spoke, "Dr. Handelman, just so you know, I arrested Dr. Mendelavov after I found out what he'd done to help you, but after a couple days, and after I had reasserted my government's control over my own country, I let him free." He looked at Neytiri for a moment. "I did so because I realized he was only trying to help you put an end to this insanity, as you call it. I have seven grandchildren and I don't want to lose any of them in a war against the Na'vi. Such would be madness in itself. I just want this madness to be put behind us."

"And it will, Mr. President. It will." Jake said. "All we have to do negotiate a peace treaty, and that will put this madness behind us."

The head of the RDA spoke up again. "Why are we even listening to him? He's a bigger traitor than that piece of shit Dr. Handelman. Jake Sully betrayed his own race!" he yelled.

The president looked at him. "Didn't I just tell you to shut up and keep quiet?" she snapped.

"I will not sit still while you play lapdog to traitors. I will sue you, him, and anyone else who participates in this travesty of justice. He and Dr. Handelman must both answer for what they did! And if I have anything to say about it, they will!" he yelled.

"Lawsuits? You seem to be forgetting that the United States government has seized most of your company's assets, pending an investigation into your activities. You're on very thin ice, Mr. Bundy. You don't seem to realize that things have changed around here."

"I don't care!" the RDA Olo'eyktan sneered. "We're going to sue everyone under the sun until this is set right, starting right now. We're suing to assert our ownership of that avatar!" he said, pointing at Jake. "That avatar is our property and we want it back!" he brayed.

Neytiri felt a tightening in her chest. Were they going to try and take her husband from her?

Her brother spoke up. "That might have been true up until yesterday, but there is a reason Jake introduced Neytiri as his wife, because that's the truth. They're married, in case you didn't know."

"Married? When did this happen?" one of the Earth leaders asked. "Just because they say they are married doesn't mean they actually are married? When did they get married?"

"In a sedate, quick, and exquisitely civil ceremony this morning, in my hospital room, Jake Sully married Neytiri of the Omaticaya Clan of the Na'vi. The groom wore his Olo'eyktan's regalia, as you see him wearing now, the bride wore the clothing of her favorite teacher, Grace Augustine, also her second mother, and they were married by the hospital chaplain, in a legal ceremony that was perfectly majestic in its own right, if I don't say so myself, because I was one of two people who made it happen. So, they're married in the eyes of the law, meaning any and all claims of ownership by the RDA on the body Jake Sully now inhabits are moot, to say the least. The RDA lost ownership of that body the moment Jake got married in it. Deal with it, asshole." Jerry said, looking at the RDA Olo'eyktan.

He just sneered back. "There's no way any court in this land let alone any other will accept the marriage of an avatar and some blue-skinned, fly-bitten Catwoman savage -"

He didn't finish the sentence because Neytiri launched herself over her brother's chair and across the table, unsheathing her knife in one fluid motion, and landing right in front of the RDA Olo'eyktan, her knife at his throat, face-to-face with him, her tail twitching and snapping in anger.

"The only human who gets to call me 'Catwoman' is my brother!" she snarled at him. "You can't have my husband back. He is Na'vi now and his heart belongs to me! He is mine now!" she then finished with a few choice Na'vi curses at the pitiful little man in front of her before standing up. She noticed the president's guards had drawn their weapons at her, so she started walking back to her seat. She noticed Jake was smiling at her, as was Jerry. She smiled back.

After she had sat down, the president motioned to her guards to put their weapons down. "Relax guys, I have this." she said, turning to the RDA Olo'eyktan.

"One more slur like that against Mrs. Sully or her people and I am going to stand back and let her carve you a brand-new asshole with that knife of hers, Mr. Bundy!" she snapped at him, pointing her writing implement at him.

He was silent for a moment, looking at her. "You can't be serious, and what the hell was that last part she was saying at me, was that some kind of insult or something?"

Jerry smiled at him. "Just so you know, dumbass, Na'vi females tend to be very, very protective toward their mates and this is one three-meter tall blue-skinned Amazon warrior princess Catwoman chick you really, really do not want to piss off, which you just did. The nicest thing my sister-in-law just called you was a moron. It went downhill from there. In the interests of peace, you really don't want to know what else she called you, but I think that last little bit was an invitation for you to attempt sexual intercourse with a Thanator, which given the microscopic size of your genitalia in comparison to -" he paused for a moment, "well actually, given the microscopic size of your genitalia period, would be an interesting trick indeed."

The RDA Olo'eyktan adjusted his collar, "That figures, we're still going to assert our ownership of that avatar. We won't rest until this matter is resolved. That avatar is our property!"

"First rule of holes, dude." Jerry said. "When you're in one, stop digging."

Neytiri's heart tightened. What were they going to do?

Her brother took her hand. "Relax, I think the president has this in hand. I think I know what's going on here." he said to Neytiri.

"Oh, do you? Then do tell?" the president said, sarcasm in her tone.

"I think the Corporal is about to called up to active duty." Jerry said, "among other things."

The president looked at him with new respect. "Yes, exactly, and he's not going to be a corporal anymore." she turned to her military leader. "As of right now, I am field promoting Jake Sully to the rank of Captain in the United States Marine Corps. Get me the paperwork and I will make it official."

"Yes ma'am." the military leader said, speaking to one of his aides. "We'll have that right here momentarily." he said to her. "It shouldn't take more than a minute to get the forms."

"Good." the president said. She switched to Na'vi for a moment. "Jakesully, as the Olo'eyktan of your birth clan, I call upon you to serve your birth clan for one final mission. Do you accept?"

"I'm listening." Jake said, in English.

"Good. As you know, part of my job is to protect this country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. The Na'vi certainly are foreign to this country and this world, correct?"

"If you say so." Jake said noncommittally.

"And, it is my understanding that a group of Na'vi warriors recently defeated a small armed force from the RDA, even though that force was superior in its armaments, correct?"

"Yeah, I guess you could say that."

"Then wouldn't you agree that it would behoove me as president to determine what, if any, threat the Na'vi might pose to this country and this world?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Jake said, the beginnings of a smile on his lips.

"Therefore I am asking you to undertake a comprehensive survey of every Na'vi clan to determine what threat, if any, that clan might possibly pose to the United States. I need you to determine every clan's strengths, weakness, training, morale, number of warriors at hand, weapons, everything, so I can do my job. Do you hear me, Captain Sully? I want you to compile a comprehensive report on the Na'vi threat potential to the United States in order for me to do my job as president. Do you hear me?"

"Yes ma'am." Jake said.

The president's aides put a piece of paper in front of her. She signed it. "There is is official, you are a captain in the Marine Corps. Congratulations, Captain Jake Sully." he stood up at attention.

"Furthermore, I need you to investigate every warrior of every clan of Na'vi to determine what, if any, threat that warrior might pose to the United States. I wouldn't be doing my job if I ignore any threat from the Na'vi, now would I?"

"No, you wouldn't, Madame President." Jake said, "but every warrior of every clan? There are a lot of Na'vi clans and quite a few of them have a lot of warriors. You do understand that it might take me a while to compile this report for you. Madame President."

"Absolutely. I would not have it any other way, Captain. As your commander in Chief, I am ordering you to take whatever amount of time you feel is necessary to complete this mission, a mission I deem vital to the national security interests of the United States. Do you understand me, Captain?"

"Yes. Absolutely yes." Jake said, smiling. "You do understand that I'll have to go to Pandora in order to carry out this mission, don't you?"

"You go wherever you have to go, do whatever you have to do, talk to whomever you have to talk to, wherever they might be. I don't care, just so long as I have a comprehensive report on the Na'vi military strengths, weaknesses, and any and all possible threat the Na'vi and every Na'vi warrior might someday pose to the United States and how I might deal with each and every one of those potential threats to the United States. I want that report on my desk, at some point in the future. You are to take whatever time you think is necessary to compile and complete that report. Do we have an understanding, Captain Sully?" she asked, as she signed some more paperwork in front of her.

"You got it, Madame President." he said, still smiling.

"Good." she turned to an aide. "Draw up the paperwork for the mission and I'll sign it." The aide left the room.

Jerry spoke up. "And, as the strains of the 'Star-Spangled Banner' are heard in the background, I will be more than happy to provide and all assistance to my brother in the completion of his report to you, Madame President, including the use of my computers to assess any and all various threat scenarios that might arise from any Na'vi warrior or clan and how you might deal with those scenarios and, I will assist my brother in the writing of this report, all of which I will do so without asking for any compensation of any kind from the government." He looked at Jake for a moment, "'Every warrior of every clan of Na'vi'? You could write a chapter just on your wife, you know."

Jake smiled at him. "Yeah, I probably could do that."

The president looked at him. "That is very patriotic of you, Professor. We might take you up on that offer."

Jerry spoke again. "I am assuming if this mission is a matter of national security that you have just made Jake Sully a national security asset of the United States?"

"Yes, and?" the president asked him.

He pointed to the RDA Olo'eyktan, who was watching this and beginning to see what was happening.

"I suggest you tell Corporate Fucktwit here the consequences of violating the National Security Act of 1947, as amended."

She smiled at him. "With pleasure." She turned to the RDA Olo'eyktan. "You, Corporate Fucktwit, sorry, but we need to use your company's avatar for a special, top-secret, classified mission. I can't disclose exactly what we're using it for because I have deemed it to be a matter of vital national security to the United States, but we need your company's avatar, so we'll get around to compensating you for the use of your avatar as soon as we determine how long we'll need it. Since this mission is classified, if you breathe one word of this to anyone, your lawyer, the press, anyone, you will be in violation of national security. Belch one word of this to your pet parrot in Morse code and I will find out and you will be going down. Sorry, but we need your company's avatar. We'll get it back to you as soon as we can, in the meantime, you shut your damn mouth and don't tell anyone. You are sworn to secrecy, mister!"

The RDA Olo'eyktan got up. "I can take the hint, but you don't think I'll be quiet about this, do you? You really don't think I'll shut up about this, do you?"

"One word of this leaks out, and you're a dead man, because I'll simply throw you in the professor's teleportation machine and send you to Pandora, where you can explain to the Na'vi how and why you put Jake Sully's life in danger. Now get out of my sight." she waved to her aides. "Get that piece of shit out of this room right now!"

The RDA Olo'eyktan brushed aside the people who were trying to escort him from the room. He glared at Jake and Neytiri for a moment, then left the room in a huff.

"You haven't heard the last from me!" he muttered as he left.

"Ah, it suddenly smells better in here!" Jerry said. He turned around and looked at Neytiri. "Neytiri, just so you know. That last bit between me, Jake and the President was pure Sarcasm."

"And a finer exchange of Sarcasm we have never before seen." the president said, with a smile on her lips. "That was well worth it."

"And now that all that is behind us, we can maybe get started." Jerry said.

The president looked at him for a moment. "As long as you're up to this." She moved her pen to the side of her tablet. "How are you feeling, Jerry?"

"I've been better," her brother said quietly. "I have my good days and my bad days, but I am getting better, slowly but surely, thanks in part to my sister-in-law's help."

The president looked at Neytiri for a moment, then back to Jerry. "Yes, so I hear. She's been very helpful in your healing. Which is good, because we were told to negotiate with you and that we couldn't negotiate this treaty without you, so all of us are quite grateful that you're still here with us."

Jerry was quiet for a moment or two. "Well, I didn't want to keep everyone waiting any longer, and my doctor and sister-in-law both say I should be up to this, so here I am."

Neytiri spoke. "If my brother cannot do this, I will take him back to his hospital bed so he can rest. I will not let you push him or let him get exhausted." she said, with absolute finality in her tone.

"That's fine with us." the president said, "by the way, Jerry, just so you know, the cost of your medical care is being paid by the United States government."

Her brother was silent for a moment, Neytiri nudged him and he spoke. "Thank you, Coretta. I appreciate that."

"And the Na'vi are grateful for everything you have provided us here, including helping my brother to heal." Neytiri said. "We thank you for all of this."

"Well, from what I have been told, you're a major part of that, Neytiri." the president said.

Neytiri glared at the other woman for a moment. "That's Mrs. Sully to you, and don't you forget it, Madame President." she said.

The president nodded. "Mrs. Sully it is. Suit yourself."

One of the president's aides pointed at Neytiri. "Wait a minute, you mean she's practicing medicine, without a license? She's not a doctor!"

The president looked at her aide, "No, but she is the shaman of her clan, which she considers Dr. Handelman to be a part of, as well as family to her, and she has provided a lot of Na'vi medical knowledge, herbal remedies, and anything else she thinks might help Dr. Handelman's physician in healing him so he can be here with us today." She looked at Neytiri for a moment. "Enough that his physician thinks Dr. Handelman would probably be dead if it were not for your assistance. Is that correct, Mrs. Sully?"

"Yes, that is correct. My brother's toktor has told me several times how grateful he is that I could help heal my brother. I am his Tsahik and he is my brother and I will do whatever I can to help him heal. Jerry's toktor and I think he is strong enough to be here. If he can't do this, I am taking him back to his hospital bed for more rest. I will be the judge of whether my brother is getting too tired to continue this discussion, not you or anyone else here." Neytiri said, folding her arms across her chest, as she had seen humans do when challenging each other.

The president considered that for a moment. "And that is fine with us."

She looked at Jerry for a moment. "But before we get going here, I have to know one thing. Why didn't you think this through, Jerry?" she said, looking at him, then Jake and Neytiri.

"I did think this through." her brother scowled. "I gave it a lot of thought and planning before I carried this mission out. How do you think I was able to pull off Operation Payback without anyone getting on to it until it was basically too late to stop it?" he muttered.

The president put down her pen. "Jerry, you could have at least come to me first. Why didn't you come to me?" she said, with a pleading tone in her voice.

Jerry looked at her for a long moment. "Yeah, just like the last time. It worked really well the last time I tried, so you could say I wasn't exactly eager to repeat that experience."

"That's water under the bridge by now, Jerry. That was a very long time ago, when we were both a lot younger and lot less schooled in the ways of the world. You're not holding that against me, are you? Because if you are, then we don't have a whole lot to talk about."

"No, I am not holding it against you, just telling you why I didn't talk to you. Because I was so friggin' paranoid, so afraid of my own shadow, I would only talk to and include people I could trust absolutely, which there were not very many of those. I couldn't let anyone outside my little circle know who I was and what was in my heart because I was so afraid the RDA would find out. You saw the files from their computer servers. You know what they were planning. That's what I wanted to stop and that is exactly what I did. I'm sorry about the deaths and the upheaval, but that is better than the alternative, if you ask me. That I prevented a war from erupting here and against the Na'vi is something I am damn proud of and something for which I am not going to apologize. So there." he finished, with a defiant flair. "In case you haven't noticed, I have become something of a folk hero myself. There are a lot of people who don't like the RDA, did not like what they did on Pandora, and who will listen to me. They will follow my lead. I stopped a catastrophic civil war from erupting here, but if it looks to me like you won't listen to reason, I might just sit back and let it come. Think about that for a moment."

The president and the other leaders all looked at him, some glared at him, others seemed stunned. Finally, after a long pause, the American leader spoke.

"That's good and fine, Jerry, but it still doesn't answer my question. Why didn't you think through all the ramifications of what you were doing? Didn't it occur to you that you might have been wrong, that you might be messing around with something you didn't understand?" the President said, with more than just a trace of defiance in her tone. "You didn't think of everything, you know."

Jerry was silent for a moment. "That's exactly right." he finally said. "I didn't think of everything because I'm human and I underestimated just how smart Eywa really is. She is a hell of a lot smarter than I am, that's for sure. She outsmarted me." he said, looking at the humans on the other side of the room. "And if I were any of you, I'd not forget that, not for one second."

The president looked at him. "And she outdid you in the brains department. So what, you expect us to congratulate you on being outsmarted by a planetary neural network?"

"No. I expect you to realize just who you're dealing with here. She outsmarted me because I didn't realize just how powerful she really is. She managed to wrest control of our network from me and the other people involved with this mission and totally lock us out. Plus, she's managed to remake our network into her own avatar, an avatar which she is keeping up and running for us, for the moment, at least."

"Yes. She took control of the network, but wasn't that your whole plan all along? It seems to me she was simply playing along until she could grab control of the network. Once she had control, she didn't need you anymore. Am I right?" the Russian president asked him.

"You're not hearing me. She took control almost immediately and did it so fast, I didn't even realize it was happening until it was a done deal. I tried to cut her off at Pandora, and here, with Sergei and his secondary, but it was too late. She'd already locked all three of us out, had started rewiring the network here in order to make it self-aware, and had reconfigured the ground stations here to receive the signal directly from her, rather than going from the Tree of Souls to Hells Gate and then to my lab. That's pretty smart, in my book."

"Wait a minute," the Russian president said, "Dr. Mendelavov was helping you to receive her signal? I thought he had been simply helping you take over the network."

"Sergei was my backup, in case something happened to me or my lab, and he had a backup of his own, someone known only to him, I never knew who that person was, only that Sergei trusted that person, and that person was part of the group. I still don't know who that person is. That's all. She figured all that out as soon as I linked her up."

"But didn't you tell her that when you transferred your soul into her on Pandora?" the American president wanted to know.

"You're not hearing me, Madame President, Mr. President. I came up with that part of the plan _after_ I transferred my soul into Eywa, when I got back to Earth. I never told her about it when I was in there with her. She figured it out on her own and figured out how to lock all of us out so she could take over. You would be wise to remember that Eywa is a lot smarter than any of us, especially you."

"Is that another threat, professor?" the American president asked him.

"No. Just a statement of fact. Let me guess. None of you can get into the network and modify it? Am I correct?"

The president sighed heavily. "Yes. That is correct. We're all locked out. But you knew that already, professor. You're locked out too."

"Yes I am. Since we're all locked out, and we're unable to change or modify anything in the system without Eywa's knowledge or consent, none of us, not you, me, or anyone else can reboot our servers and expunge Eywa from the system with her knowing about it? Correct?"

"Yes. That is also correct." The president answered, sounding annoyed.

"In fact, the only way you could completely get her out of the system is by manually cutting off every computer, every server, every mainframe from the system and manually rebooting every single one, which would take a very long time to accomplish, would crash the whole system, and besides all that, Eywa would be aware of what you're doing long before you even got a serious start on something like that, which means she would either launch a few missiles at certain, selected targets or just crash the system herself, letting our civilization die with it and withdrawing, leaving us to wither on the vine without our global network to keep us going. I suppose you could try to simultaneously pull the plug on every computer, server, mainframe, and the rest. That would remove her from the system, but doing so would kill the self-aware lifeform our system has now become, along with Eywa herself, which would make the Na'vi really, really angry at you, and would take way, way too long to organize, meaning she would figure out what you're trying long before you got it in place.

"Correct on all points, professor." The president said, with a touch of anger in her voice.

"And, I am guessing you tried to unplug the computers and servers and that didn't work, did it?"

"No, it didn't. And your point, professor?" the president asked him.

"My point is that Eywa is pulling enough energy directly from Polyphemous' magnetic field that she doesn't need our grid to keep the network up and running. She can transfer that energy directly through the link and send it right in to the network. Thus, she has shut us out completely, for now."

"Meaning?" The president asked him.

"Meaning that the system was designed to be as autonomous as it could be, needing very little human supervision or direction to function. It could and did hum along just fine, needing only occasional input from the human operators. We designed it to be as automatic as possible, and now Eywa has taken that design one step further. She's interjected herself into the system, made it part of her and made herself part of it, basically cutting us out of the equation entirely. We can't get rid of her, the Na'vi have to negotiate with us, because she is in essence holding herself hostage as what amounts to a human shield, interposing herself in between us and them. The only way we can gain control of the system is if Eywa returns control of it to us. And, until she feels we no longer represent a threat to her or her children, she will not do so. So, we have to show her we won't harm her or her children ever again before she'll let us have our global network back. She's one smart cookie, that Eywa is, and you'd all be wise to remember that."

"But, she won't do it forever, now will she?" the president said, looking at Jerry.

"No. She won't." He turned to look at Jake. "Jake, remember when you'd come out of the link, you'd feel kind of tired yourself, even though your body had been resting in the chamber for however many hours?"

Jake thought for a moment. "Yes. That sounds about right. I'd come out of the link after spending most of the day with Neytiri, learning and running around, and I'd feel kind of beat. Is that important?" he asked.

"Yes. You were feeling tired because your mind was using energy to make the mind transfer into your avatar, not a whole lot of energy, but energy nonetheless. It took energy to maintain the link, and the machine had its own energy source, but for you, you had to keep the avatar aware and conscious, along with your real body, and that took energy."

Jerry turned back to the others. "Eywa will not maintain our network forever. It's probably straining her quite a bit to do this, even though she's using my knowledge of the magnetic field of Polyphemous and how to get energy from it to get the energy to run the network, she cannot sustain that energy transfer forever. Sooner or later, she will not be able to maintain it and she'll have to give it back to us."

"So what, we just wait her out?" the American president said.

"No. She will be able to maintain it for a lot longer than you can wait. She's patient. She wants for us to be able to run our own network, but to do so without hurting her or her children. That means we have to solve our energy supply situation. Or else, Eywa will simply pull out and let the network crash on us, bringing us down with it."

"Which would be very bad, as you've said. And you're right. We need to solve our global energy crisis because if we don't, our civilization is dead."

"Glad you see things that way." Jerry said.

"Good." the president said. She looked at the other leaders around her. "Because we're putting you in charge of it, since you're the one who got us all in this mess in the first place."

"Me?" Jerry gulped. "You want me to solve our global energy crisis? How the hell am I supposed to do that?"

"You're the brilliant, child-prodigy physics geek, who is smarter than the rest of us. I'm sure you'll think of something. After all, thinking is what you're best at, right?"

"Uh, yeah. But this is a pretty tall order, Madame President."

"Well, then I suggest you get working on it, because as soon as we conclude this treaty, that will be your primary task. Do you hear me, Doctor Handelman?"

"Yes." her brother said. "I hear you loud and clear."

"Good." The president said.

"Now about that treaty," the president said. "We should ask your sister-in-law and the other Na'vi a simple question before we get going on the negotiations."

Neytiri's ears perked at that. "And what would that be?" she asked.

"Could we have our network back? Please?" the president asked, simply and directly.

"It is not up to me or any of us," Neytiri said, waving to her fellow Na'vi, "we can only talk to you so that there will be peace between our worlds. What happens after that is up to our Great Mother. We have no control over what she does." Neytiri said, defiance creeping back into her tone.

"Well, we thought we'd ask. You do understand that negotiating like this with your deity basically holding a gun to our heads isn't the best way to negotiate a peace treaty, don't you?"

"I don't imagine it is very good for you." Neytiri said slowly. "In fact, I think it probably sucks dead donkey balls for you to be in this position."

"Yes it does. I see you're picking up some of your brother-in-law's speech mannerisms." the president said. "That's very endearing."

"I don't much care what you think. As far as I and my husband are concerned, you all can just bite me." Neytiri said, defiant. "I want to take my husband, my brother, and my fellow Na'vi away from this world and let you rot in your filthy, smelly corrupted, ruined world."

"You have good reason to hate our race. I won't deny you that." the president said.

"There are too many of you." Neytiri said. "We can't begin to help all of you, and many of your race will not listen to us."

"We'll make them listen." the president said. "We have to. It is our only hope."

"Why don't you have another of your world wars. That might kill off enough of you that your world can heal." Neytiri muttered, looking at the president and the other leaders, immediately ashamed of what she had just said.

"That is an ugly sentiment, coming from someone like you, a healer, the Tsahik of her clan."

Neytiri paused for a moment, surprised at how such a hateful, hurtful sentiment could have taken root in her heart yet not surprised that she had nurtured it. "I am sorry for saying such a thing to you, Madame President. It is just that I can't even begin to understand how we can help your world heal, with all its problems. I am angry. Angry that our world's fate is tied to yours. Angry that I am supposed to help you See a better way, when few of your race can See at all."

"But your Great Mother has other ideas, doesn't she?" the president answered her.

"Yes. She does, so here I am. She wants us to help you, to help heal your world, to show you a better way of doing things. I don't know if it is possible to do that, but I will try. It is what our Great Mother wants from me, from us, so here I am before you, to try and help you heal your world."

"And that is a good thing. In your position, I would hate the human race too, but you don't want to hate that child your carrying, do you? That child is part human."

"Yes. That is true. I can't hate my own child. Even though I can't believe how evil your race is, I have to believe that you're better than that."

"You have seen us at our worst. Now we'll show you our best. We can start with that child of yours. Since it is part human, we offer the best resources the human race has to offer to help you with your pregnancy and delivery. You are carrying a child that is partly from this world. This child is a child of two worlds, and for us, we want it to have the best possible care we as a race can give it."

"Wait a moment. She's pregnant?" One of the president's aides said. "I thought the Avatars were all sterile. How the hell did Jake Sully, uh, father a child?"

Jerry spoke. "Ah, the first Avatars were sterile, yes, that's true. But, the later ones were designed to be fully functional in all respects."

"And if I miss my guess, Jake Sully is able to satisfy his wife's needs, fully and completely." the president said. She looked at Jerry. "Fully functional indeed."

Neytiri smiled wanly. "Yes. My Jake completes me and satisfies me in every way a woman needs to be satisfied." she said, taking Jake's hand.

The president sighed. "Well, in any case, your child is a child of this world too and we want your child to have the best care it can get."

Neytiri was silent for a long moment, pondering what the president said. Jake then spoke, taking Neytiri's hand. "My wife and I will consider that offer, Madame President, and we may take you up on it."

"It's there if you need it." the president said. "And, we will also need to keep Dr. Handleman under observation. It seems he didn't consider the long-term consequences to his own health of using his transfer machine. He needs to be monitored and tested to find out what those consequences really are before we use this technology on a larger scale, with other humans."

Neytiri glowered. "If you think I am about to let you use my brother in your experiments …" she muttered.

"You misunderstand me, Mrs. Sully. We don't want to experiment on him. We just want to monitor his health so we can understand what are the effects of this technology he used to get you here. We don't want for there to be unintended consequences for humans, or Na'vi. This technology needs to be very carefully studied and investigated first. After we're done with this treaty and these negotiations, I am imposing a moratorium on the use of this technology at least for the use by humans until we can investigate it further. We want to know what effects, if any, this technology might have on anyone who uses it, whether human or Na'vi."

Neytiri put a hand over her belly. "Yes, this is a good thing. My brother's toktor thinks I have not caused harm to my child when I went through my brother's machine, because I am Na'vi, and we are much stronger than you humans. I only want the best for my child, and my people." she finished.

"And you'll get it, along with your brother-in-law."

"I just hope I'll heal completely from all this." her brother muttered, almost under his breath.

"You're doing fine, for someone who survived four severe gunshot wounds." the president said.

"Yes. And I'd sure love to see the people who shot me face the music."

"They will. The two gunmen who survived the battle outside your lab will talk, eventually, about who hired them and who they were working for. No thanks to you since you killed their leader. We will get the truth out of them sooner or later." the president said, and something in her tone chilled Neytiri's soul.

"I'd sure like to know how they found out where I was and that the Na'vi were with me." Jerry muttered. That was a hell of a surprise."

"We're looking in to that." the president said. "Among other things, the RDA issued that warrant for Jake Sully's arrest to anyone who wanted a copy and was willing to get to Pandora to execute it. Those five 'bounty hunters' happened to be in this general area when they got wind of Jake's location at your lab. It seems that the sheriff's deputies were not exactly observing proper radio protocol when they got to your lab. I told the sheriff to go and get you, accompanied by the Army, to protect you, but obviously, someone else found out about it." she said.

"Yeah, and this is the kind of people I had to deal with, which is why I was so secretive all along. You must have gotten the files Eywa found in the RDA's servers. You read the memos. Their whole plan, laid out. They wanted a war and they almost got one. What are you going to do about that?" Jerry asked her.

"Yes. I got those files, along with other files and there isn't much I can do about that." The president said. "It's not a crime to have war plans on your computer, you know. What? You think just because you get a 'Get Out of Jail Free' card that we're now supposed to throw the book at the RDA and their CEO? It doesn't work that way, Jerry. You ought to know that by now."

"They were trying to start a war, and all you can do is offer platitudes?" Jerry muttered. "And you want to know why I didn't come to you? Look at the memos from their people who were working on macroscopic teleportation. My best guess from those memos is that they were at most a year, probably closer to six months, from figuring it out and doing what I and my two colleagues did to get me to Pandora. Imagine if they'd gotten there first. Imagine if they'd managed to get to Pandora before me. I repeat, they wanted a war and they almost got one. You had a plan to deal with that? I had a plan too, one I couldn't just share with anyone, one that required absolutely secrecy and only a few people in the know. I did what I did to save Pandora and the Na'vi from the worst we had to offer and all you can tell me is that you had a plan to take them down."

"We had our own plans, before you came along. We were ready and prepared to take on the RDA and bring them down, until you upset those plans, Jerry. Think about that for a moment. We could have taken them down if it hadn't been for you."

Jerry was silent for a long moment. "Would have, could have, should have, but I am the one who did it. I brought them down, all of them. If you think I'm going to be quiet about what they were planning, about the Dark Dreamer project, about all of that, guess again. I won't shut about what they were planning and I will never stop speaking the truth about them. Everyone will know what kind of monsters those assholes really were. I am the one who came up with this plan and I pulled it off."

"And now we all have to face the consequences of your unilateral decision to do so." the president sighed. "If you don't believe me, fine. I'll have the Secretary of Defense send you the file on Operation Rainbow Pallet. You can read it yourself and the you can come and talk to me about what we could have done, what we should have done."

"Whatever." Jerry said. "I'm sure it will be great reading." He paused for a moment. "But think of this situation this way, Coretta. If a fledgling Tsahik of the Omaticaya Clan can help heal her crazy physics geek brother-in-law, then maybe there is hope for the human race yet. Perhaps the Na'vi can help the human race heal itself and its world. Our Great Mother is truly very wise." he said.

Neytiri noticed the use of 'our' and how her brother had just cast that last sentence. She was not the only one to notice that.

"'Our' Great Mother? You think you're Na'vi now, do you?" she asked Jerry.

"Yes. After what the human race did to my sister-in-law and her people, I am not sure I want to call myself human any more, even if I'm in a human body, Madame President. Besides, they consider me to be one of them anyway, so I might as well start thinking of myself as Na'vi from now on."

Neytiri put her hands on Jerry's shoulders. Jake put his hand on top of hers. "My brother is one of us now. Even though his heart is a machine, made by humans and he is in a human body, my husband and I think of him as Na'vi inside, in his real heart, where his soul is."

The president smiled wanly. "Then so be it." she said quietly.

Neytiri looked at her brother, Jake, then the president. "I am a warrior. But I am not here to talk of war. I am here to talk of peace. Peace between our two worlds and our peoples."

The president looked around. "And that is what we're here for too."

"Good. At least we can agree on one thing." Netyiri said, smiling despite herself.

"Then let's start talking." The president said. "Considering that the entire world is watching us, waiting, to see what we do here, today and in the coming days, to bring about a just and lasting peace between us, then I'd say it's time to get down to business."


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26: In Which Some Things Are Resolved, And Others Not (At Least Not Yet)

Neytiri and her husband helped their brother get back into his hospital bed.

"But we could have kept on going." Jerry muttered. "A couple more hours and we'd have had the treaty all done and negotiated. Why'd we have to stop?"

"Because you were getting tired and I don't want you to hurt yourself, brother!" Neytiri said, looking at Jake, then Jerry's doctor. "I was only doing what's best for you, my brother."

"And it's a good thing you did. Jerry needs his rest," his doctor said, looking at her, then Jerry. "and as your doctor, I am ordering more rest for you. You can always negotiate tomorrow."

"Take it easy, Jerry." Jake said. "We'll finish this up tomorrow. If not then, certainly by the day after that. We're almost there, we just got a few little things to tie down and then we're all done. You need to be at the top of your form, and for that, you need more rest. We need you, I need you, I couldn't have done this or gotten this far without you, so brother, you have to get some rest."

Jerry shrugged. "I suppose you're right. It's no matter, really, just that I wanted to get as much done as we can today."

"And we did." Jake said. "We've already gotten most of what we wanted from this treaty already. The humans will have to fix the damage they have caused to our world, if they want any more Unobtainium, that is, and they do, so they will. They will not be able to use destructive mining methods any more, which means no more open-pit mining, and if they have to do any surface mining, they'll have to replant and restore the areas they mine to as close as those areas were before the mining. And that was just in the first hour of the negotiations. We did pretty good."

"Yeah, that's true, and Neytiri's idea that only humans who want to go to Pandora should go, was a good idea too. I like that. Before it was people who were getting paid a whole lot of money to go to a place most of them didn't want to go to in the first place, and now, they'll be sending people who want to go there, to do research, to learn, from us and us from them, good idea, Neytiri."

"It was what you said, brother. You said that the people who came before never really wanted to go there unless they were given a lot of money. But, if we can get people to come to our world who really, really want to come there, then we will benefit along with them. It was you who gave me that idea, my brother. I have to give you credit for that. You are right. If there needs to be people to keep Hell's Gate working, then it is best that they be people who want to be there in the first place, not just those who expect money. And of course the humans at Hell's Gate need fuel for their machines, which means they will have to have their shuttles to get the fuel, and all that brings along with it."

Jerry smiled. "Well, great minds, and all that. Infrastructure required people to maintain it."

His expression turned bitter for a moment. "And it looks like one of those people who gets to go to Pandora is going to be me." he muttered.

"Of course it is, bro!" Jake said, "You're family."

"No, it's not that. That last break we took before the last round of negotiations this afternoon, I got a message from the University. They want to 'renegotiate' my contract, because of all the crap I pulled to get us to this point. 'Inappropriate use of university resources' and 'violations of numerous state and federal statutes' among other of their complaints against me are more than enough for them to get rid of me. I can take the hint, I can see the writing on the wall."

"Aren't you a tenured professor, they can't just fire you, can they?"

"They can do whatever they want, even if I have tenure. It doesn't matter to them. They can 'renegotiate' my contract into oblivion, if they wanted too and there isn't a damn thing I can do about it. They can give me a broom closet under the back stairwell to work out of, if they wanted to."

"Maybe we can talk to someone, pull a few strings, make some demands of our own." Jake said, looking at Neytiri, then Jerry.

"No, brother, it's water under the bridge. I broke so many damn laws, those who want to get back at me can do it this way. All I ever wanted to do was teach, and they can take that away from me, just like that." he said, snapping his fingers. "It's my life, and they can kick me to the curb and I can't stop them, the bastards." he said, almost crying.

Neytiri put her hand on his shoulder. She looked at Jake and he at Jerry as Jerry's expression turned very bleak. He looked up at them.

"I hate to ask you this, brother, but can I come out to Pandora, and stay with you and Neytiri, with the clan, I mean? It doesn't look like I have much of a life here anymore. I won't ever get another job teaching, ever again, even if there are a lot of people who are glad for what I did, I'll always have to look over my shoulder, wondering if there is someone out there who wants to kill me for what I did to stop the RDA."

Jake looked at Neytiri again. She knelt down next to Jerry's bed.

"Jerry, my brother. We want you to come back with us, back to Pandora." She said, taking his hand. Jake put his hand over hers.

She continued. "We want you to carry one where Grace left off. We want you to start up her school again, to teach the clan's children, our children, because our worlds will be together now. We want you to teach the children about the humans, their world, their language, everything. You can still be a karyu, it's just that you'll be doing on Pandora, for me, Jake, and all the Na'vi."

Jerry looked at her for a long moment. "Sounds like a plan. I'll do it on one condition."

"What would that be, brother." Jake said, smiling.

"That my sister-in-law the Tsahik of our clan will also teach the children, along with me, and perhaps Max and Norm too, if they want to help." he said, looking at Neytiri.

"I will gladly do so, brother." she said, tears in her eyes, "you have much to teach us, and I want to learn from you too. It is appropriate that the Tsahik of the clan helps in the education of the next generation of Na'vi, after all, so yes, I accept your condition."

"You'll have to build a new school, and it will probably have to be a much larger school, if you, me, Max, and Norm are teaching there and we're teaching more than just the Omaticaya's children. For that matter, we might be able to have the humans build other schools with other clans, since there will be humans coming to learn from and teach the Na'vi."

"Yes. That will be a good idea, Jerry." Neytiri smiled.

"A whole bunch of schools for the Na'vi. I like that idea." Jake said. "And we'll build the first one right near our new home, just for you and Neytiri and Max and Norm and whoever else. And we'll build a house for you, Jerry. I don't imagine you'll want to live up in Hometree itself."

"No, I'm not much on the climbing thing, with this bum leg, and this new knee I have." he said, smiling again. "But if I have a little house near Hometree, then that means I can watch your kids grow up and live vicariously the experience of parenthood through you, bro."

"'Live vicariously the experience of parenthood' my ass." Jake grumbled at him. "Dude, if I am gonna be changing diapers and cleaning up after my kids then so are you. I want them to grow up knowing their uncle, you know."

Neytiri smiled at both of them.

"Ain't that nice and sweet." Jerry's doctor said, joining the conversation. "Jerry gets a family, at long last." he said, smiling. "I know the president imposed a moratorium on the teleportation machine, but I'll explain to her why you need to use it again, as soon as you're up and about and out of this bed, which should be in about a week or so. You're making excellent progress, Jerry."

Neytiri smiled at him. "Thank you, Toktor Hansen. I want my brother to come home with us."

"And he will, and he can everything he needs to help us with our energy situation from Pandora as much as he can do here anyway, so it doesn't matter. He can use the facilities at Hell's Gate for that, if he needs to."

"That is true." Neytiri said, getting up.

"And, if your brother-in-law is going with you, I'll have to work out something with Max to ensure that his health is looked after. You'll probably have to take him to Hell's Gate once or twice a month or so, to make sure he's doing fine, and once a year, you'll have to bring him back here, so I can check up on his heart, make sure it's doing fine, give him any upgrades, that sort of thing."

"And we will determine all that in time, Toktor. I am glad you're thinking ahead."

"Just trying to stay ahead of the game." he said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go make my rounds." He nodded to Neytiri. "We'll talk about all of this later, before you leave."

He left the room.

The three of them held the moment, savoring the feeling of family.

"You know," Jerry said. "I did read everything the president sent me. She was right. They had an operation in the works to take down the RDA." His expression turned wistful for a moment. "Maybe I did jump the gun on this."

"Don't go there, brother." Jake said. You did what you had to do in order to save us. You can't play 'what might have been' or else you'll go crazy. We can't afford you going down that road."

"No, but it's like this. The RDA was apparently way in over their heads. They were overleveraged big time with the Pandora operation, way, way overleveraged and their house of cards was one missed shipment of Unobtainium from crashing down around them. They were like the old Soviet Union before it fell by the wayside. Like all empires, they had reached their zenith and were on their way down. They just didn't realize it, and I should have realized that, I would have realized that if I'd simply opened my mind to other avenues of information instead of being so goddamn paranoid. They were a paper tiger, Jake, and maybe I should have listened, I should have talked to President Abernathy before I went off on this. I could have saved everyone a whole lot of grief if we'd pooled our resources."

"But you didn't, and that is what counts." Jake said, looking at him. "And think about it like this, brother. If there are people here who hate your guts for what you did, imagine how the RDA Olo'eyktan must feel right now. His whole operation, blown wide open, most of the human race hates his guts, he'll never have an easy night of rest ever again, for as long as he lives. He'll have to spend the rest of his miserable life in hiding, always looking over his shoulder, wondering if someone will finally get to him. Serves him right."

"You know, I never told you which world I was going to save, remember?" Jerry said, smiling.

"That's true." Jake said. "You were trying to save this one, and in saving Pandora, you ended up saving this one too."

"That I did." Jerry said. "That I did."

"And you have secured a future, for all of us, human and Na'vi alike." Neytiri said, looking into her brother's eyes. "For that, we thank you, I thank you, and I think even the President thanks you, Jerry. In fact, I think her heart is on our side, not that of the humans."

"Maybe so," her brother mused for a moment, "you two seem to be getting along fine now, you're on a first-name basis after only the first day of negotiations. That's pretty good, to go from 'Mrs. Sully' to 'call me Neytiri, if you want' and that bodes well for all of us."

"I rather like the American leader. She is a strong-willed woman. She will see to it that this treaty between our worlds is observed, for it it is what will truly secure our future." She looked at her husband, then at Jerry, "And we have you to thank for that."

The Tsahik of the Omaticaya, her husband, and their brother held hands for a long moment.

Their future awaited them, a future Jerry Handelman had helped ensure would be there, for them, if they wanted it, which they most certainly did.


End file.
